UAE Doctors on a Save ‘Small Hearts’ Mission in Ethiopia

ADDIS ABEBA – UAE’s Sharjah Charity International (SCI) has launched a “Small Hearts Campaign” involving doctors that perform free catheterization for Ethiopian children.

The campaign launched in collaboration with the UAE Embassy in Ethiopia brought the SCI medical team that is currently giving pediatric catheterization at the Children Heart Fund of Ethiopia or CHFE’s cardiac center in Addis Abeba.

Led by Dr. Ahmed Al Kamali, Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist and Head of the Campaign, the team includes three doctors.

The team has started its operations on Wednesday and screened more than 30 cases. The selection was made for cardiac catheterization and few open-heart surgeries. It is expected to perform many catheterizations during the four-day campaign.

UAE’s ambassador Mohamed Alrashedi said that the ‘Small Hearts Campaign’ visit to Ethiopia is part of the UAE’s commitment toward supporting the health sector Ethiopia.

The visit is the first of many more similar missions to come, he said and adding that that the campaign will help the needy patients and facilitate capacity building and transfer of knowledge for doctors at the Cardiac Center.

Dr. Helen Befekadu, Medical Director and Cardiac Intensivist at the Cardiac Center, expressed her thanks to having “Small Hearts Mission” from the UAE, and for the great support being made in this first campaign.

This mission mainly focused on pediatric catheterization than surgical procedures due to limited access of surgical instruments, she said.

“Considering the high surgical backlog in our center of more than 7,000 children’s, future strong and sustainable collaboration with UAE will be very helpful to address the long waiting list as well as professional knowledge and skill transfer,” she said.