Save a Child’s Heart may get special status on UN council

Holon-based NGO recommended for special consultative status by the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
SACH 311 (photo credit: Sheila Shalhevet)
SACH 311
(photo credit: Sheila Shalhevet)
Save A Child’s Heart, a Holon-based NGO that strives to save children with heart conditions in developing countries, has been recommended for special consultative status by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
The organization, SACH, brings children to Holon’s Wolfson Medical Center for heart transplants and other lifesaving operations, and trains doctors in Israel and around the world to provide improved pediatric cardiac care.
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We are thrilled to receive this recognition from the UN,” said Simon Fisher, the organization’s executive director. “We hope this status will open doors for us so that we can reach more children in need of treatment in the poorest corners of the world.”
The organization said in a statement that accreditation to this UN committee will allow them access to subsidiary bodies at the UN, such as the Commission on Sustainable Development, the Commission on Population Development and the Commission on the Status of Women.
In addition, ECOSOC consultative status also allows for participation in the Human Rights Council and many of the human rights treaty bodies of the UN, the SACH spokeswoman said.
“Sustainable development is a core value of Save a Child’s Heart,” Fisher said. “It is why we not only bring children to Israel for surgery, but we also bring doctors for training. This is how we are able to expand our impact exponentially, as the doctors who receive this training return to their home countries better equipped to treat children.”
SACH has trained some 56 physicians and nurses from a host of countries including, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Moldova, Nigeria, the Palestinian Authority, Romania, Russia, Tanzania and Vietnam.
This summer, a group of doctors, supporters and volunteers working with or trained by the organization will attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in an effort to raise money to save the lives of more than 100 children in desperate need of treatment in Africa.
Godwin Godfrey, a physician from Tanzania, is one of those involved in this fundraising effort.
“The training I am receiving from Save a Child’s Heart, will do nothing less than enable me to go home to Africa and save children’s lives,” he said.
According to information provided by the organization, SACH has rescued over 2,600 children worldwide since its founding in 1995. Its doctors have examined and evaluated more than 6,000 children from 42 countries around the world.