Already fifty little “hearts for peace”…

[9 January 2007 - 14h02]
[mis à jour le 17 January 2007 à 18h23]

The French association “Un Coeur pour la Paix” has fulfilled its main objective: to operate on fifty Palestinian children at the Hadassah hospital in 2006. Despite the war, despite the financial obstacles, despite – everything.

Palestinian children saved by Israeli doctors. That is the story of an almost utopic project that has come true. “In times of war, people try to look after the wounded, not sick children from the other side”, says Dr Muriel Haïm, beaming.

“Despite all the problems linked to the conflict, the children are still being operated on. The ambulances have always managed to get to Hadassah,” she continues. “Most children come from Gaza and Hebron. All are suffering from very serious cardiac pathologies”. They are mostly infants, aged from several hours to a few months.

“There is no paediatric cardiac surgery unit in Palestinian hospitals. These advanced, very specialised structures are not a priority for the authorities. Neighbouring countries quite simply do not want to deal with these small patients”. In other words, these children are condemned to death.

Now they can all live, like baby Naema born during an emergency procedure at the Hadassah hospital, whose operation was carried out a few hours only after birth. “The success rate is the same as in Paris or New York”, says Muriel Haim. “As a nurse put it very prettily, ‘the only enemy here is sickness’”.

The objective for “Un coeur pour la Paix” for 2007 is again to finance one operation per week, and also to develop training courses. “This year, our additional objective is to train a Palestinian doctor. The ultimate aim is to set up an autonomous Palestinian paediatric cardiology team who, with our help, will take care of Palestinian children”. Here’s the address if you want to send a donation (cheques made out to Un coeur pour la paix: 48 rue Cortambert, F-75016 Paris, France.

Source : Un Cœur pour la Paix, December 2006

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