Since the launch of the Little Hearts Project, Muntada Aid has successfully carried out more than 12 campaigns in poor underdeveloped countries by sending our team of volunteer medical professionals to perform over 600 heart operations on children.

Due to the success of this project, and the ever-increasing demand from around the world, Muntada Aid is moving on to phase II of the Little Hearts Project; the construction of the Little Hearts Paediatrics Cardiac Centre.

The centre, which will be built in the heart of Mali’s capital Bamako, will be the first paediatric heart centre in the entire country.

Mali has a population of 15.3 Million, of which over 150,000 are living with a congenital heart defect, that’s 1% of the population.

And every year over 700,000 children are born in Mali, and 7,000 of them will be born with a congenital heart defect. With not a single paediatric heart centre in the country, many of these children are faced with imminent death.

Objectives:

• To establish a functional, sustainable centre for cardiac catheterization and cardiac surgery in Mali,
• To train the local health professionals to carry out paediatric cardiac procedures to treat congenital heart defects,
• To act as a regional centre for the treatment of congenital heart defects for underprivileged families in neighbouring countries with no access to such facilities,
• To act as a base for all future Little Hearts campaigns in the region.

Sub-Saharan Africa carries over 24% of the global disease burden but is home to only 3% of the global health workforce, in sharp contrast to the Americas, with only 10% of the world disease burden but 37% of the global health workforce. It has been said that this inequity in the global health workforce represents the greatest impediment to health in sub-Saharan Africa.

This is why we need your support to leave a sustainable and lasting impact, saving the lives of generations to come.