On November 20, 2017, The Embassy of the State of Israel screened a film entitled "Broken Hearts Club" and held a reception at the Italian Cultural Institute.
"Broken Hearts Club" directed by Roy Krispel and Produced by Moti Mitzri tells the story of four Ethiopian children arriving to Israel to have lifesaving surgeries in Wolfson Hospital via Save a Child’s Heart(SACH). This internationally acclaimed heart touching documentary runs for 72min. It is a winner of best documentary award in the CHICHESTER festival in England.
The Event was opened by remarks form Mrs. Tal Ben-Ari Yaalon Chargé d’Affairs a.i. of the Embassy of the State of Israel. Past patients, diplomats, doctors and staffs of SACH were among the attendees.
Besides celebrating the bilateral relation between Israel and Ethiopia on the health sector, the event was also organized to celebrate the Universal Children Day. The United Nations' Universal Children's Day, which was established in 1954, is celebrated on November 20 each year to promote international togetherness and awareness among children worldwide.
SACH is an Israeli-based international non-profit organization with special consultative status granted by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (ECOSOC). SACH was founded in 1995 at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel, with the mission of improving the quality of pediatric cardiac care for children in developing countries and creating centers of competence in these countries. SACH's goal is to improve the health and welfare of all children, regardless of the child's nationality, religion, color, gender or financial situation.
SACH's holds preoperative, follow up cardiology clinics in Israel, and abroad on a weekly basis, offers a comprehensive training program within Israel for doctors and nurses from developing countries and leads surgical and teaching missions to partner countries.
To date, Save a Child's Heart have saved the lives of more than 4,400 children from 55countries in Africa, South America, Europe, Asia, and throughout the Middle East and trained more than 100 medical team members from these countries
SACH is not new to Ethiopia. Two weeks after the historical visit of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia H.E Hailemariam Desalegn and the First Lady H.E. Mrs. Roman Tesfaye Abneh at Save a Child’s Heart in Israel, a medical team traveled from Israel to Ethiopia for a week of lifesaving heart surgery with partners Mending Kids from the United States on June 2017.
In the past five years Save a Child’s Heart has trained in Israel a young Ethiopia Surgeon, Dr Yayehyirad Mekonnen, who was trained by Dr Lior Sasson at Wolfson Medical Center. Alongside Dr. Mekonnen Save a Child’s Heart also trained a pediatric cardiologist, a Pediatric Intensive Care Physician and an Anesthetic Physician.