Last week, ten children travelled to Israel for life-saving heart surgery, thanks to a partnership between the Ministry of Health and Save A Child’s Heart (SACH), an Israel-based international non-profit organisation with a mission of saving children with severe congenital and acquired heart defects.

The group is composed of children aged between 2 and 18 years old.

It follows another one, of three children that travelled to the Middle-East country for the same purpose in October last year.

So far, under the agreement between the Ministry of Health and the Israeli NGO, 43 children have received treatment in Israel.

According to Dr. Emmanuel Rusingiza, a Paediatric Cardiologist at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK), the partnership between the Ministry of Health and SACH is of great significance in treating some conditions that cannot be handled locally.

"The Ministry of Health is doing everything possible to promote cardiac care, but there are some diseases we don’t have the ability to treat yet. This is why such partnerships are important. Many children sent to Israel have completely healed, and others are in better conditions than they were before being operated on,” he said.

According to Simon Fisher, the Executive Director of Save A Child's Heart, there is a plan to treat more children from Rwanda.

"We are happy to receive this group of 10 children from Rwanda, one of the many countries we work together to save lives of children. These children need lifesaving heart treatment for them to survive, and that is what SACH will provide. Under the MoU we have with the Ministry of Health, we plan to receive more children from Rwanda in the near future,” he noted.

Speaking about the partnership, Ron Adam, the Ambassador of Israel to Rwanda, commended the fruitful relations between Israel and Rwanda.

"We are happy to see Rwandan children receiving lifesaving heart treatment in Israel. This partnership stems from the good ties between Israel and Rwanda, and it is one of the many existing areas of cooperation,” he said.

Other areas of cooperation between both countries in the health sector include sending Rwandan medical professionals to Israel for different courses.