As Save a Child’s Heart celebrates three decades of humanitarian work, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog has backed calls for Nobel Peace Prize recognition for the organization. Haim Taib, founder of Taib Group and president of Save a Child’s Heart Africa, is among those highlighting the importance of building sustainable cardiac care capacity across the continent.
For a child born with a serious heart condition, access to specialist medical treatment can determine the course of an entire lifetime. Yet for many families in developing countries, the expertise and facilities required to treat congenital heart disease remain beyond reach.
For the past 30 years, the Israeli humanitarian organisation Save a Child’s Heart has sought to address that challenge, providing specialised cardiac treatment to thousands of children while training medical professionals who can extend that care in their own countries. Haim Taib, founder of Taib Group and president of Save a Child’s Heart Africa, has emphasised the importance of this approach, which combines life-saving treatment with efforts to strengthen local healthcare systems.
The organisation marked its 30th anniversary at a gathering at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, where Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised its work and expressed support for Nobel Peace Prize recognition. Children who had received treatment, their families, medical professionals, supporters and diplomatic representatives attended the event, including representatives from African countries that have benefited from the programme.
The anniversary offered an opportunity to reflect on an initiative whose impact extends beyond individual medical interventions. Its work illustrates how international medical partnerships can save lives in the immediate term while helping countries develop the expertise needed to provide specialist healthcare independently.
Founded in 1995, Save a Child’s Heart has provided life-saving cardiac treatment to more than 9,000 children from 75 developing countries across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, South America and beyond.
Its first patients came from Ethiopia, establishing a connection with Africa that has remained central to its work. Since then, 4,732 children from 39 African countries have received treatment through the organisation.
The programme provides cardiac surgery and catheterisation procedures in Israel and through medical missions. The costs of treatment are fully funded by Save a Child’s Heart, meaning families do not have to pay for the care their children receive.
Among those represented at the anniversary was six-year-old Shalom from Malawi, who received treatment in Israel for Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart condition. Her story reflects the immediate purpose of the organisation: ensuring that a child’s prospects are not determined solely by the availability of specialised medical services in their country of birth.
But treating individual patients, however important, is only one part of the mission.
Building Africa’s own medical expertise
A central challenge facing healthcare systems is ensuring that specialist treatment can be delivered consistently and locally, rather than depending on patients travelling abroad or on visiting medical teams.
Save a Child’s Heart has therefore invested in the training of medical professionals alongside its treatment programme. More than 180 healthcare professionals have completed training through its fellowship programme, many of them from African countries.
The aim is to develop a growing network of specialists capable of treating children at home, training colleagues and helping establish stronger paediatric cardiac services.
One example is Tanzania, where Dr Godwin Godfrey trained with Save a Child’s Heart in Israel before becoming the country’s first paediatric cardiac surgeon. He now heads the paediatric cardiac centre at the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute in Dar es Salaam.
His career demonstrates the potential long-term value of medical training partnerships. Knowledge acquired through international cooperation can be brought back into national healthcare systems, where it can benefit patients well beyond the duration of an individual fellowship.
The programme is also supporting the next generation of specialists in Zambia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Doctors, nurses, anaesthesiologists, intensive care specialists and perfusionists are training at Wolfson Medical Center in Israel, developing the range of skills required to support complex cardiac procedures.
For Zambia, this investment is particularly significant.
Dr Zachias Moonde Muulu, a paediatric cardiac surgeon currently completing a fellowship with Save a Child’s Heart, plans to return home and become the country’s second paediatric cardiac surgeon.
“When I complete my fellowship with Save a Child’s Heart next year, I will return to Zambia as the country’s second pediatric cardiac surgeon,” he said.
His colleague, Dr Ziwa, who was also trained in Israel, has already returned to Zambia as its first paediatric cardiac surgeon. Together, the two doctors will serve a population of approximately 21 million people.
“Our entire pediatric cardiac team has been trained in Israel, and now a second generation of doctors is on its way,” Dr Muulu said. “This is how we build a sustainable future for pediatric cardiac care in Zambia.”
The development of that second generation is central to the organisation’s wider ambition: creating the conditions in which children can receive life-saving treatment closer to home.
From humanitarian treatment to stronger health systems
The distinction between treating patients and building medical capacity is important. Emergency and specialist treatment can save a child’s life, but sustainable improvements in healthcare require trained personnel, experienced clinical teams and institutions capable of maintaining services over time.
For countries with limited access to paediatric cardiac specialists, the development of local expertise can help reduce dependence on treatment abroad and expand the number of children who can be reached.
It is also a model of cooperation in which knowledge flows across borders and benefits communities long after the original partnership begins.
“For 30 years, our first patients, two children from Ethiopia, came to Israel for lifesaving heart surgery,” said Simon Fisher, executive director of Save a Child’s Heart. “Since then, generations of Israeli medical professionals have shared their knowledge with African colleagues who are now saving lives in their own countries.”
He added that the organisation’s ambition for the next 30 years is for children treated today to grow up and raise families in communities where life-saving cardiac care is available locally.
The emphasis on long-term capacity is also reflected in the work of Haim Taib, founder of Taib Group and president of Save a Child’s Heart Africa.
Marking the anniversary, Taib thanked the organisation’s medical teams and partners for their commitment to children across the continent. He also called for greater reing local knowledge, expertise and capabilities must remain a priority
In this regard, Haim Taib stated, “This anniversary is both a moment of gratitude and a call to action: far greater res the continent and ensure that more children can receive quality care closer to home. The priority must be to strengthen local knowledge, expertise and capabilities so that African countries can build resilient health systems for the long term.”
His message highlights a broader challenge for international humanitarian initiatives: ensuring that successful programmes can translate individual achievements into lasting institutional progress.
Recognition and the next 30 years
Herzog’s support for Nobel Peace Prize recognition has brought additional attention to the organisation’s work. The anniversary gathering in Jerusalem brought together patients, families, African medical professionals and representatives of countries served by the programme, underscoring the international reach of its mission.
The significance of the organisation’s three-decade record lies not only in the number of children who have received treatment, but also in the expertise being developed through its training programmes.
Each doctor who returns home with specialised skills has the potential to contribute to a wider medical team, mentor future specialists and help expand access to treatment. The long-term impact can therefore extend well beyond the patients directly treated by the organisation.
There is no substitute for the investment required to build strong national healthcare systems. Training programmes must be accompanied by the reecialist services. Nevertheless, Save a Child’s Heart offers an example of how international partnerships can contribute to that process
Thirty years after its first patients arrived from Ethiopia, the organisation continues to connect children in need with specialised care while helping African countries develop their own medical capabilities.
Its next chapter will be measured not only by how many lives it saves, but by how many children can receive the treatment they need in their own communities, supported by medical teams trained to care for them.
Caption: Mr. Haim Taib, President of Save a Child’s Heart Africa (Credit: courtesy)
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