Save a Child's Heart
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| Abbreviation | SACH |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1995 |
| Founder | Dr. Amram (Ami) Cohen |
| Type | Humanitarian organization |
| Headquarters | Wolfson Medical Center |
| Location | |
| Fields | Medical |
President | Prof. Arie Schachner |
President of SACH Africa | Haim Taib |
Save a Child's Heart (SACH) is an Israeli humanitarian organisation providing cardiac healthcare to children worldwide. it was founded in 1995 and is based at the Edith Wolfson Medical Center near Tel Aviv, Israel.[1]
Save A Child's Heart provides cardiac surgical and catheterization procedures for children from low-and-middle-income countries at the Save a Child's Heart International Pediatric Cardiac Center at the Sylvan Adams Children's Hospital in the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel, near Tel Aviv;[2][3] It operates an in-depth outreach post-graduate fellowship training program in Israel for medical personnel from these developing countries. It has trained doctors from Ethiopia, Tanzania, and the Palestinian Authority to provide comprehensive pediatric cardiologists;[1][4][5] It sends staff overseas to provide this education and mentorship to local medical professionals, as well as to perform surgeries side-by-side with them. It has sent numerous medical missions every year to many countries including Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zanzibar, and Romania.[1][4][5]
As of December 2025, it has brought more than 8,000 children to Israel from 75 countries[6] including Ethiopia, Gambia,[7] Vietnam, Jordan, Moldova, Tanzania, Russia,[4][8] the Philippines,[3] Nigeria,[2][9][10][11] Ghana,[2][12] Kenya,[4][13] Angola[14] Iraq,[15][16] Haiti, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad, Ecuador, Mauritania, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Rwanda,[17] Somalia, Eritrea, Sri Lanka, China, Kazakhstan, Estwana,[18] Romania, South Sudan,[19] Ukraine,[4] Syria[20] and Somaliland,[6] as well as from Gaza[21][22][23][24] and the West Bank (the Palestinian Territories).[4] Approximately 50% of the children are from the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Iraq and Morocco, more than 30% are from Africa, and the remainder are from Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Americas. In December 2010 the first child from Indonesia was brought to Israel and underwent successful surgery in January 2011.[4]
Its doctors and medical personnel volunteer their time and expertise, with the only costs (about $10,000 US) used to provide post-surgical care at its children's home in Israel for an average stay of about three months.[25] Children are brought to Israel from their home country in groups of four to six, accompanied by a nurse or, if they are under age three, by a family member.[4]
Save a Child's Heart Foundation U.S. has been certified by Independent Charities of America as one of about 2,000 “Best in America” charities, verification that its “fund-raising materials and other information to the public is truthful and non-deceptive” and that it provides “documented provision of substantive services.” Save a Child's Heart Foundation U.S. has received the Independent Charities Seal of Excellence.[26][failed verification]
It is the first and only Israeli organization to receive the United Nations Population Award for outstanding achievements in population and health providing free lifesaving heart treatments to children in need all over the world in 2018.[27]
Surgeries performed in Israel
Save a Child's Heart has treated over 8,000 children from 75 countries at the Wolfson Medical Center.[6]
In 2013, amidst the Syrian Civil War, it conducted an open-heart surgery on a 5-year old Syrian girl. The pre-schooler, living as a refugee in an undisclosed country, traveled to the Wolfson Medical Hospital in Holon to receive the treatment. She was the first Syrian child to receive the free medical care and surgery.[28][29]