(Jun 4th) “All grown-ups were once children. But only few of them remember it “. So said Antoine De Saint-Exupery wrote in his “Little Prince”. But it’s not always so and it’s definitely not this way for the Association “Bambini Cardiopatici nel Mondo – AICI”, a non-profit organization with 19 years’ experience to assist and treat children suffering from congenital heart disease in the developing countries. The leading cause of death in the developing countries, second only to infectious diseases, are in fact congenital heart disease. In particular, in Senegal – a country with 12,387,000 inhabitants – every year 1,000 children are born with congenital heart disease, of which 80% die within the first 5 years of life because they can receive specialized care and today there are 30,000 Senegalese children waiting for surgery. A concrete help for these children comes from the Italian association which has planned a new Department of Cardiac Surgery and Pediatric Cardiology at the Fann Hospital in the capital city of Dakar. In this hospital it is already running a center for cardiac and Thoracic and Cardiovascular surgery, but that is mostly operates on adult patients. Now the project aims to build a new two-floor block, designed exclusively for children, with two operating rooms, two hemodynamics rooms, one for intensive therapy and one for semi-intensive, a pediatric ward with 25 beds, a ward for adults with congenital diseases, a meeting room and various medical studies. To realize this project “Bambini Cardiopatici nel Mondo” has launched a campaign to raise awareness and funds in the week from June 4th to 10th: you can donate 2 euros by sending an SMS to 45506 (or 2 or 5 dollars with a call to the same number from a land line) to help build the Center in Dakar. Testimonial of the campaign is Enzo Decaro, Italian actor, who worked with Massimo Troisi for years. (Gil/Peg)
