Open Heart - Uganda
Mission in Uganda
Pobing is not new in Uganda.
As early as 2016, the OPEN HEART project took its first roots through the POBIC FOR WOMEN project. A complex and fruitful initiative, born in collaboration with Rena-Foundation, an organization active in the Rwenzori region of western Uganda.
A reality aimed at protecting pregnant women who constantly risk their lives due to poor hygienic and sanitary conditions.
Let's tell the story of that trip at this link:
Project Pobic For Women – Uganda.
However, 2024 brings a breakthrough for the OPEN HEART project itself, the one aimed at saving children with serious heart conditions.
A journey taken with doctors Carmelo Arcidiacono e Marta Gagliardi of the hospital Gannina Gaslini of Genoa and accompanied by the photographer Raffaele Petrella and from the journalist Marta Bellingreri.
Continue reading to see the images and read the experiences.
POBIC HEART UGANDA Mission - 2024
3 lives saved in 2024
2024 is also the year of continuous travel from Italy to Uganda and of three trips in particular from Uganda to Italy.
Three young lives have access to the OPEN HEART UGANDA project, the first of 59 children who had access to the screening of this incredible journey.
Discover their story here.
Ariella is safe.
Mary's heart has healed.
Jernita has recovered.
The Pobic Uganda team met with dozens of families at the Heart Institute hospital in the capital Kampala and organized a meeting with those who have already made the trip to Italy for their children's operations. The professionalism of the local hospital team and the warm Ugandan hospitality contributed to making the mission a huge success!
Over fifty appointments, and in every face, the hope of being able to access the OPEN HEART project.
Every donation allows us to give hope to every child who dreams and hopes.
Stories of children who want to live.
Martha Ariana Minebingwa, 13 years old, loves to sing.
Becoming a singer is just one of the wishes the girl hopes to fulfill after heart surgery.
Martha Ariana, along with her mother Doreen Akello, participated in screening days at the hospital of Kampala, Uganda Heart Institute, where they met doctors from the Gaslini Hospital in Genoa for a cardiology visit.
“Being 13 years old and having heart problems is feeling a little different,’ says Martha Ariana. ”But today I'm going home with hope.“.
Fatia Nakazibwe holds her little daughter Ariela in her arms. She got up at 6 AM to reach the Uganda Heart Institute in Kampala. But it's not the longest distance she has traveled in her life.
Six months before this appointment, Ariela gave birth and since then every smile has been painful. The baby hasn't slept more than three hours a night, sweats often, and isn't gaining weight. She has an atrioventricular canal that can cause heart failure, little life expectancy. Or rather, she did. The morning she woke up at dawn, Fatia embraced hope.
Ariela, along with her mother Fatia, will be able to undergo surgery at one of the centers of excellence for pediatric cardiology in Genoa.
Evangelina Alma, just one month old, is inseparable from her mother Sophia's body.
3 kg, 50 cm, and a saturation level of 81%: these are the concerning figures that make Evangelina Alma a good candidate for the upcoming surgeries as part of the Pobic mission at the Uganda Heart Institute in the capital, Kampala.
“I can't sleep at all since she was born,” says the mom, “her temperature often rises, I always have to check.”.
But when she breastfeeds her, for a few minutes, the little one, Sophia, is doing well. Her eyes sparkle after meeting Dr. Gagliardi, on the Pobic mission, who performed the echocardiogram on the little one.
Ugandan children alive thanks to the OPEN HEART UGANDA project
Teopisca and Simon (see his story below) have vivid memories of the warm welcome they received in Italy when they arrived for little Simon's heart surgery. “The idea of leaving with my son, who was only 10 months old, for a distant country without relatives worried me,” says Teopisca.
“Pobic's team picked us up at the airport and right away I felt that everything would go well.” And so it did.
After the operation at the Gaslini Pediatric Hospital in Genoa, Teopisca saw her son again: “that joy in his eyes meant everything to me.” One year after the operation, Simon was revisited by doctors from Gaslini on a Pobic mission in Uganda.
When Miria was 9 years old, she underwent surgery at Gaslini Hospital in Genoa for a heart malformation.
He had difficulty breathing and was sweating a lot.
“The operation changed my life,” says Miria. “Even though I loved my studies, I could never pay attention. After the operation, I finally started to love myself, to walk a lot, and to work hard at school!”
Mom Rosemary is always in touch with Pobic for her daughter's follow-up. During the last visit in January 2024, doctors from Gaslini on a mission with Pobic confirmed Miria's heart health.
Uganda 2023 - Simon's Year
Simon and his struggle against life
The child Simon Jireh MUGISA, born on March 17, 2022, in Uganda, with Tetralogy of Fallot, arrived in Italy with his mother, Ms. Teopista Ochora, on January 26, 2023, and was admitted to the Gaslini Pediatric Hospital in Genoa on January 27, 2023.
He was operated on by the team led by Dr. Francesco Santoro on 02/06/2023 and was
Discharged on 02/28/2023.
After a successful recovery, Simon and his mother returned to Uganda on 03/06/2023.
When Simon Jireh Mugisa arrived in Italy on January 26, 2023, his condition was delicate due to Tetralogy of Fallot, a serious congenital heart disease that compromised the proper flow of blood to his lungs and the rest of his body.
The little one had faced the first few months of his life with significant respiratory difficulties and constant fatigue.
Simon couldn't play or move like the other children; his movements were limited by his shortness of breath and cyanosis, a blue coloring of his lips and nails, typical of children with this condition.
The medical team, led by Dr. Francesco Santoro, prepared carefully for a delicate and complex operation, aware of the importance of this intervention for little Simon's life.
- Together we can do more and more
Every donation is crucial for us
Thanks to numerous donations and the work of many volunteers, we have so far helped over 300 children in 7 international cooperation missions.
With your support, we can do more and more.
OPERATING HEADQUARTERS
- Registered office / operational office Via Romanino 1 25123 Brescia
- +39 0376920464
- ong-pobic@ong-pobic.org
CONTACTS
Registered/Operational office
Via Romanino 1
25123 Brescia
Tel - +39 0376-920464
Headquarters
V. Belfiore No. 9
Bozzolo (MN)
Operations Headquarters
Via Santa Maria in Conio, 10
35131 Padua PD
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But let there be a nest in the velvet viverra bibendum in ac nisi. Even let the dui vitae sem
GALLERY
- ONG POBIC ODV