helen Anglim
Little Hearts Project
Fundraising for Muntada Aid
Story
Every heart deserves to beat
Our Little Hearts project provides free life-saving cardiac surgery and interventional cardiac catheterisation for children with Congenital Heart Defects from underprivileged families irrespective of gender, race or religion.
Each year over 1,000,000 babies are born worldwide with a congenital heart defect. 100,000 of them will not live to see their first birthday and thousands more die before they reach adulthood
Ignoring this deadly killer is tantamount to a death sentence on the many babies afflicted with this disease. Which is why the Little Hearts project exists. The Little Hearts project is the largest heart treatment project of its kind in the world, sending a team of more than 30 heart professionals each time carrying out on average 60 operations.
1. In addition to sending a global team of medical volunteers to perform life-saving heart operations,
2. Muntada Aid also trains local health professionals to carry out future operations ensuring sustainability and that lives can be saved long after we have gone,
3. and we build and equip cardiac centres with vital equipment and medication needed.
Since the launch of the Little Hearts Project, Muntada Aid has successfully carried out more than 12 campaigns in poor underdeveloped countries by sending our team of volunteer medical professionals to perform over 600 heart operations on children.
Due to the success of this project, and the ever-increasing demand from around the world, Muntada Aid is moving on to phase II of the Little Hearts Project; the construction of the Little Hearts Paediatrics Cardiac Centre.
The centre, which will be built in the heart of Mali’s capital Bamako, will be the first paediatric heart centre in the entire country.
Mali has a population of 15.3 Million, of which over 150,000 are living with a congenital heart defect, that’s 1% of the population.
And every year over 700,000 children are born in Mali, and 7,000 of them will be born with a congenital heart defect. With not a single paediatric heart centre in the country, many of these children are faced with imminent death.
Objectives:
- To establish a functional, sustainable centre for cardiac catheterization and cardiac surgery in Mali,
- To train the local health professionals to carry out paediatric cardiac procedures to treat congenital heart defects,
To act as a regional centre for the treatment of congenital heart defects for underprivileged families in neighbouring countries with no access to such facilities,
To act as a base for all future Little Hearts campaigns in the region.
Sub-Saharan Africa carries over 24% of the global disease burden but is home to only 3% of the global health workforce, in sharp contrast to the Americas, with only 10% of the world disease burden but 37% of the global health workforce. It has been said that this inequity in the global health workforce represents the greatest impediment to health in sub-Saharan Africa.
This is why we need your support to leave a sustainable and lasting impact, saving the lives of generations to come