Leading UK charity, Muntada Aid’s ongoing Little Hearts mission international team performed a first-of-its-kind intervention on a 9-day-old baby in Tanzania. Though these procedures are not new in the West, in developing countries like Tanzania, this is a big step towards developing capacity for more complex procedures.
The Little Hearts Project is currently in Tanzania for the 8th time to help children with heart defects and the team of doctors, nurses and medical professionals aim to carry out over 60 vital heart procedures over the week.
The project has been working with Tanzanian heart specialists for over a decade, helping them develop in-house human resources that have enabled the local team to build the capacity to treat children in Tanzania. Muntada Aid helped the country develop its first and only paediatric cardiac facility.
This is Little Heart’s 48th Mission and the 8th time the project team have provided these operations to children in Tanzania. The charity has assembled a team of medical professionals from four countries, and they will be supported by an amazing team of local doctors allowing them to deliver these lifesaving and life-changing operations for free to children across the country.
An estimated 1.5 million children are each year born with a congenital heart defect (CHD) globally. 10% of babies born with CHD do not survive their first year of life. 1000s more die and don’t reach adulthood. In poor underdeveloped countries, the lack of specialised medical infrastructure means babies born with congenital heart defects have little or no access to necessary treatment.
Kabir Miah, Little Hearts Programmes Manager at Muntada Aid, said:
“The need for these important operations continues to grow across many low-income countries, especially in many parts of Africa and this is why we continue to return to Tanzania and other countries to help as many children as possible.
The team will be working hard with the hospital staff to ensure we can deliver as many operations as possible during our time in Tanzania.”
Little Hearts is Muntada Aid’s flagship project and was launched in April 2012. The charity provides free life-saving heart surgeries to children with congenital heart defects from underprivileged backgrounds irrespective of gender, race or religion. Since 2012, it has carried out 48 missions in 13 countries and performed over 2,600 cardiac interventions and surgeries saving thousands of lives.
To find out more about Little Hearts, please visit www.muntadaaid.org.