About ten years ago, a little girl called Katya, who was then four years old, arrived from Moldova to Israel with very serious heart defects. She was brought out by Save a Child’s Heart, an Israeli-based international humanitarian organization, whose mission is to improve the quality of pediatric cardiac care for children from developing countries who suffer from heart disease. Katya was near death and her body was deep blue due to the lack of oxygen.

Some five months and four highly complicated surgeries later, after Dr. Cohen and his team had worked their magic, Katya was ready to go home. A few days before she left, she drew a picture, as only a child of her age can, of a hand holding a little girl with a heart. When she was asked to explain her drawing, she told the following story to Dr. Cohen and the head nurse: “I had a dream, there were many colors over my bed, then a very big hand came in the middle of the night. We flew to a far-off country and they gave me a new heart, and I could run and dance.”

Since 1995, Save a Child’s Heart, one of the biggest undertakings of its kind in the world,  has treated more than 2,100 children suffering from congenital and rheumatic heart disease aging from infancy to 18 years of age from the “four corners of the Earth” -  35 countries where adequate medical care is unavailable. Every 29 hours another child’s life is saved because of a small group of medical professionals who volunteer their time and expertise to perform cardiac surgery and train medical personnel.

All children, regardless of race, religion, sex, color, or financial status receive the best possible care that modern medicine has to offer. 49% of the children are from the Palestinian Authority, Jordan & Iraq; 40% from Africa; 4% from Moldova, Russia and former USSR and 7% from China, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

Now, you can help save lives with the ‘Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve’ t-shirt from the NU campaign. The t-shirt expresses the heroic actions of Save a Child’s Heart and celebrates the joy and hope that this organization brings to hundreds of children’s lives!