A Mission to Bring Children From Chad to Israel for Life-Saving Cardiac Care Marks a New Chapter in Chad-Israeli Relations

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Aug 24, 2022, 08:02 ET

Save a Child's Heart organized the mission to bring three children from Chad to Israel for life-saving surgery

TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A delegation from the Republic of Chad in central Africa landed recently in Israel marking the first official visit from Chad to Israel since former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed diplomatic ties between the two countries for the first time in 50 years in 2019.

The doctors of Save a Child's Heart were excited to receive the first-ever group of children from Chad and received them warmly. Israel's ambassador to Chad, Ben Bourgel, said: "I was very happy to visit Save a Child's Heart's children's home and to see for myself the incredible work done by the team. I was excited to meet Bienvenu, Abakar and Abdraman, the three children from Chad who came to Israel for life-saving medical interventions thanks to the joint efforts of Save a Child's Heart, MASHAV – Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation, the Menomadin Foundation and Israeli Flying Aid."

The three children underwent surgery at the Ida Cabakoff International Pediatric Cardiac Center at Sylvan Adams Children's Hospital. After the successful surgeries, the Director General of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alon Ushpiz, instructed the professional staff in the Ministry to expand coordination with Chad on medical issues and other areas of shared interest between the two countries, such as climate change, food security and agriculture.

One of the children is 14-year-old Abdraman, who has been waiting for a heart operation for seven years. Now, thanks to the work of Save a Child's Heart, he received the operation he desperately needed. Abdraman's mother said: "We have been praying for this operation for years. His life was in danger because of a heart defect that prevented him from playing and living like a normal child. We never thought the life-saving medical help we needed to save my son's life would come from Israel. Now he will get his life back."

Save a Child's Heart has been working since 1995 to save the lives of children from all over the world through life-saving heart surgery. To date, the organization has saved over 6,000 children, many of them from the developing world and countries without diplomatic relations with Israel.

In the wake of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and Chad, Chad became the 64th country of origin for children receiving care through Save a Child's Heart in Israel. Children from Tanzania, Zanzibar, Iraq, Afghanistan, Moldova, Kosovo, Ethiopia and many other countries come to Israel through complicated – and often secret – arrangements to ensure they are able to receive the treatment they need.