RWANDAIR FLIES CHILDREN TO ISRAEL FOR HEART SURGERY
(Posted 04th July 2019)
RwandAir has confirmed that it is partnering with Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) to provide life-saving cardiac treatment to Rwandan Children.
Eight children, four mothers, one doctor and one nurse departed last night to Tel Aviv on one of the first RwandAir direct flights from Kigali to Israel’s commercial capital.
The partnership was possible as a result of the airline’s new route to Tel Aviv, RwandAir’s 29th destination.
RwandAir launched this new non-stop line on the 25th of June 2019, following an aviation agreement signed between the governments of Israel and Rwanda earlier this year with flights leaving Kigali on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
The aircraft used is a Boeing 737-800NG offering 16 seats in business class and 138 seats in economy class.
“RwandAir is delighted to partner with SACH and support its good cause to improve the quality and accessibility of cardiac treatment for children from developing countries,” said Yvonne Manzi Makolo, the CEO of RwandAir. She added that, “the social issues that affect the communities we operate in have always been part of our mission.”
The eight children travelling to Israel were screened and diagnosed last year in Rwanda by a SACH visiting team from Israel at the Kigali Teaching Hospital. The SACH team worked side by side with their Rwandan partners, Dr. Emmanuel Rusingiza Kamanzi and Dr. Joseph Mucumbitsi, to examine 47 children with heart disease.
In the next few weeks the eight children will undergo lifesaving heart treatment at Wolfson Medical Center, and following their treatment they are expected to recover at the SACH’s recovery home alongside children from Tanzania, Zanzibar, Ethiopia, Iraq, Solomon Islands and the Palestinian Authority.
Save a Child’s Heart Executive Director Simon Fisher said; “This new direct flight between Kigali and Tel Aviv will greatly support our ability to save many more young Rwandan lives in this Israeli-Rwandan partnership”.
