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There are an estimated 500,000 children born with heart defects each year. Your donation can make a difference. DONATE NOW WINNER of the Conscious Companies Awards 2023 The average Heart operation Your donation can save a life. DONATE NOW costs R 250 000. WINNER of the Conscious Companies Awards 2023 90% of children with heart defects Your donation can make a difference. DONATE NOW have no access to care. WINNER of the Conscious Companies Awards 2023 Young Hearts Africa gives hope to You can give it to them. DONATE NOW 1000’s of children who have none. WINNER of the Conscious Companies Awards 2023 If you could save one child’s life, DONATE NOW would you? WINNER of the Conscious Companies Awards 2023

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very year, hundreds of thousands of children in Africa require life-saving heart surgery but are denied this chance because of a lack of funds and the access to the right facilities.

 

Without humanitarian support, the treatment of CHD (congenital heart disease) is unaffordable for the vast majority of the population in Africa. The costs are prohibitive even though the treatment can be life-saving and often have a strikingly positive impact on the child’s life.

 

Those who cannot afford the treatment will either accept their fate or attempt to raise some money, with the help of their families or local communities.

 

The World Health Organization has published figures proving that heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. 75% of these deaths occur in low and middle income countries.

 

In South Africa, where 85% of the 60.6 million population lives without medical insurance and depends solely on public healthcare, heart disease is the third leading cause of death.

 

The majority of cases in public hospitals involve either congenital heart disease (CHD) or rheumatic heart disease (RHD). Tragically, around 4,500 children need corrective surgery annually, but fewer than 800 receive it in public facilities.

The situation is similar for adults, who often resign themselves to their fate or attempt to raise funds with the help of family or their community.

 

Unfortunately, these efforts usually fall short, or the money comes too late.

 

Even when families manage to cover the costs, the financial burden is devastating, affecting both their current circumstances and their future plans.

 

Young Hearts Africa is all about caring for the hearts of the children of our continent. We believe that every child deserves a chance to live a healthy and fulfilling life and to become the best that they can be.

 

The Young Hearts Foundation, through the beauty of music, aims to tell the stories of these children and to raise much needed funds and awareness to make these life-saving operations possible and help them, their families and their communities create a better life and a more prosperous future.

OUR

VISION

Young Hearts Africa’s ultimate goal is to help preserve Africa’s most precious commodity, her children, by facilitating access to life saving heart operations for every child in Africa and, in so doing, ultimately eradicate preventable deaths that currently lead to such heartache and sorrow.

OUR

LIFE SAVING MISSION

As a registered non-profit (NPC) with public benefit status (PBO), YOUNG HEARTS AFRICA is dedicated to saving lives by funding cardiac care and cardiothoracic surgery for impoverished South Africans at public teaching hospitals.

 

We also work tirelessly to raise awareness in South Africa, and globally about the critical need for specialised, life-saving cardiac care for the most vulnerable in our communities relying on public healthcare system.

 

The Young Hearts Foundation, through the beauty of music, aims to tell the stories of children suffering from CHD and to raise much-needed funds and awareness to make life-saving heart operations possible and help them, their families and their communities create a better life and a more prosperous future.

OUR

ONGOING GOAL

  1. Accelerate Access to Surgery:
    We fund additional cardiothoracic surgeries at Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH) and Red Cross Children’s Hospital (RXH), reducing waiting times and saving additional lives.
  2. Increase Surgical Output:
    Enhance the capacity of GSH and RXH to perform more surgeries, ensuring that more patients receive the critical care they need.
  3. Expand Infrastructure:
    Invest in building and improving cardiac surgery-related infrastructure at our Clinical Partner facilities, strengthening the foundation of care.
  4. Lead Advocacy and Collaboration:
    Advocate for greater awareness of cardiac disease and foster deeper partnerships with governments, cardiac societies, institutions and the communities across Africa.

WE’RE MAKING

A DIFFERENCE

0YOUNG HEARTS SAVED

Picture a typical classroom – thirty small desks with thirty bright and smiling futures.

 

Between 2022 and 2024, Young Hearts Africa transformed exactly that many lives – thirty precious children who might not have lived to see another birthday, were they not given the gift of life through critical heart surgery.

 

Each of these thirty children represents a story of hope rescued from despair. In a continent where 90% of children with heart defects have no access to care, where an average heart operation costs R250,000 – far beyond what most families can afford – these thirty surgeries represent more than just medical procedures. They represent thirty families who no longer have to watch helplessly as their child struggles to breathe. Thirty communities that don’t have to mourn the loss of their youngest members. Thirty futures restored.

 

If you had the chance to save another child, would you?

STATISTICS & FACTS

ABOUT CHD

There is much to be said and many studies available about the incidences of CHD in children in Africa and throughout the world. These reports however generally only deal in raw fact and do not look at the emotional and social burden that infant disability and death places on the families and their communities.

ANNUALLY 3000

CHILDREN DIE OR REMAIN

DISABLED FROM TREATABLE

CHD IN SOUTH AFRICA

NEARLY 1 IN EVERY 100

BABIES ARE BORN WITH

A HEART DEFECT

CHD IS APPROX. 60 TIMES

MORE PREVALENT THAN

CHILDHOOD CANCER.

THERE ARE 40 DIFFERENT

TYPES OF CHDS.

OUR

BENEFICIARIES

 

All donations we collect get allocated to the great initiatives run by our worthy beneficiaries:

  •  The Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital
    • Weekend Waiting List Project
  • The Christiaan Barnard Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery
    • 1000 Hearts initiative
YOU CAN SAVE A LIFE

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