Little Hearts Mision no. 35 | Meet Joan Riziki

Meet Joan Riziki 

Joan Riziki is just 2-years-old. She is not allowed to eat before the procedure, making her very upset.  She suffers from a congenital heart defect known as An atrial septal defect (ASD). She is the fourth patient our team treated on the first day of deployment at Coast General hospital Mombasa.   

About Kenya Deployment  

The mission started on the 13th and will continue until 17th December at Coast General hospital Mombasa.   

We are aiming to treat 30-40 children during this deployment.   

During our first deployment in Kenya, our team carried out 35 interventions earlier in July 2021.   

"During our first mission, we found that there is a greater need for such deployments in Kenya. Mombasa is home to over a million people with no paediatric interventional care available to children. Our long-term objective is to build human resources capacity in Kenya so that local doctors can carry out these interventions, " said Kabir Miah, Programmes Manager at Muntada Aid. 

Do You Know? 

Each year an estimated 1.5 million children are born with Congenital Heart Defects.  

10% of babies born with CHD out of 1.5 million do not survive their first year of life 
 

About Little Hearts Programme 

Our Little Hearts project provides free life-saving heart surgery to babies and children with Congenital Heart Defects from underprivileged families irrespective of gender, race or religion. 
 

Impact 

Since 2012, the Little Heart team has travelled to 10 different countries carrying out over 22,00 operations and interventions on children. The mission to Kenya is our 35th deployment.