Israel ready to offer free heart surgery for Nigerian children

Save a Child’s Heart, a charity organisation in Israel, says it is open to partnership with Nigeria to offer free medical surgery for Nigerian children suffering from various heart diseases. The Deputy Executive Director of the organisation, Tamar Shapira, said this during a tour to the Legacy Heritage Children’s Home of “Safe the Child’s Heart” […]

Save a Child’s Heart, a charity organisation in Israel, says it is open to partnership with Nigeria to offer free medical surgery for Nigerian children suffering from various heart diseases.

The Deputy Executive Director of the organisation, Tamar Shapira, said this during a tour to the Legacy Heritage Children’s Home of “Safe the Child’s Heart” in Tel Aviv.

She said within the 26 years of the charity organisation, it had treated over 6,000 children that suffered various forms of heart diseases from 66 countries, out of which, 169 were from Nigeria.

Of the 6,000 children, Shapira said that 50 per cent of the children treated were Palestinian children, 45 per cent from different African countries and the rest from different part of the world.

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She said the children stayed in the centre between two and three months for operations and eventual discharge after being certified fit.

Shapira said the organisation also focused on bringing medical teams for training in Israel on different fields of paediatric-cardiac care to make them ready to treat children in their countries.

She said 12 medical doctors from Africa and Palestine among whom a Nigerian were currently in Israel for a training programme on Anaesthesia.

Asked if they were open to partnership from Nigeria, she said, “We are always open and we are open to help children with heart disease in need.

“We are looking for a new partnership with countries around the world at any given time together for the benefit of children with heart disease from any country in Africa.”

She, however, said, “The main challenge is the need of raising fund all the time to cover the costs of all the children coming here, to cover the cost of treatment of the medical doctors and medical machines.

“So, there is the need of fund raising and extending the support from around the world to back up the humanitarian activity taking place here in Israel.”

Meanwhile, a former spokesman for the Israel Defence Force (IDF), Lt.-Col. Jonathan Konricus, said a close collaboration between Nigerian security agencies and volatile communities was key in the drive to defeat terrorism and related crime in the country.

Fielding questions, Konricus said the close connection between the communities and the security organisations in Israel had made it impossible for enemies to operate in the country.

He said sharing knowledge, strategies and tactics on how to deal with terror organisations was paramount, adding that the training of personnel would make operations very effective.