Save a Child's Heart brings first group of Malawian children to Israel for heart care

Ten children from Malawi arrived in Israel at the start of June 2026 for heart treatment arranged by Save a Child's Heart (SACH), the Israeli charity that provides cardiac care to children from developing countries. It was the first time a group of Malawian children had travelled to Israel together for treatment. The patients, aged between two and 19, came with eight mothers and a nurse and were treated at the Sylvan Adams Children's Hospital at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.

Many of the children have congenital heart defects. Others have rheumatic heart disease, which can follow a strep throat infection that was never treated with antibiotics and which remains a major cause of heart damage in young people in poorer countries. In Malawi, specialised paediatric heart surgery is very hard to obtain.

The children were chosen during SACH's first screening mission to Malawi in May 2025 at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre. Over four days, Israeli and Malawian teams examined about 150 children and found 88 with conditions that surgery or catheterisation could treat. The Israeli delegation, led by paediatric cardiologists Dr. Hanita Shai and Dr. Akiva Tamir, worked alongside Malawian doctors and also trained local staff. The mission was supported by the Menomadin Foundation. Mothers told reporters they had waited almost a year for the trip and had not been sure it would happen.

SACH treated its first Malawian patient in 2019 and a second in 2024. Its long-term aim is to help Malawi build its own centre of excellence for children's heart care. Founded in 1995, the charity has treated more than 8,000 children from about 75 countries, regardless of nationality, religion or ability to pay, and has trained hundreds of doctors and nurses from partner countries.