(February 7) – The Italian foundation “Aiutare i bambini” (www.aiutareibambini.it) and United Hospital of Bergamo organize a mission in Kazakhstan to help children with heart disease. Last year, from April 8th to 17th, the mission took place in Almat – the old capital – in the Syzganov Scientific Centre of Surgery. A medical team, composed entirely of volunteers from United Hospital of Bergamo, was the undisputed protagonist. There are missions planned for 2012 in Uzbekistan (with a joint team of United Hospitals of Bergamo and Niguarda Hospital of Milan), Eritrea (with a team from the Hospital ‘G. Pasquinucci’ of Massa) and Cameroon (with a team of the General Hospital of San Donato Milanese). In Cambodia, Nepal and Sudan the foundation will support the cost of 110 operations, and twenty children from Kosovo and Zimbabwe will arrive in Italy to be operated. Every year, in the world, one million children born with congenital heart diseases, and half of them need a surgery within the first year of life. But many countries, in Africa, Asia or Eastern Europe, lacks facilities and medical staff to carry out so complex operations. Through the campaign “Heart of Children”, the foundation collects funds to finance the missions: you can donate 2 € sending an sms to 45507 from Italian mobile phones (Tim, Vodafone, Wind, 3, PosteMobile and CoopVoce) or calling the same number from TeleTu landline numers. Calling 45507 from Telecom Italy, Infostrada and Fastweb landlines, you can donate 2 or 5 euros. The initiative is valid from February 8th to 28th. (Roc)
HOW A MISSION WORK
The average period of a mission abroad is one week. In this period, the volunteer doctors manage to operate about ten children and to visit about a hundred. But this is not their only task: they teach local doctors and verify the presence of adequate medical equipment. If there are appropriate facilities and working medical staff, the foundation covers the operations’ cost for families in need. If it lacks both facilities and working medical staff, the small patients are brought to Italy to be operated directly in our country. Thanks to these, from 2005 to 2011, 490 children have been operated and saved.
