BUILDING BRIDGES TO CONNECT HEARTS

Nothing creates connections between peoples like a hand extended in kindness. Today, we feature two organizations that do just that, both under challenging circumstances.

SAVE A CHILD’S HEART

Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) is an international humanitarian organization based in Israel. Founded in 1995 by American immigrant Dr. Ami Cohen, it brings children suffering from heart disease from developing societies around the globe to receive the best medical treatment available.

Pediatric cardiac care is a rare and expensive luxury in much of the globe, and as a result, life-saving procedures are often out-of-reach to families who need it most. SACH connects children to the care they require, and, in doing so, saves their hearts and their lives.

Because it is impossible to bring every child in need to Israel, SACH also trains doctors from developing nations so that they can help children at home in their native countries.

The philosophy that drives SACH is simple and ancient - Tikkun Olam, or, repairing the world, is a Jewish precept that demands energy and consideration be devoted to making the world a more harmonious place.

SACH strives to create connections between the different peoples of the human family, despite political or ethnic conflicts. Patients are treated with no regard to nationality, ethnicity, financial status, or religion.

SACH’s “Heart of the Matter Project,” for example, focuses on providing care to Palestinian children in need of cardiac care and also trains Palestinian doctors. The project has been quite successful.

Almost half of all children treated by SACH are Palestinian, and the program has received support and funding from sources such as the EU, USAID, and both the Israeli and Palestinian governments.

With Palestinian and Israelis interacting in sincere and mutually beneficial ways, SACH hopes that the project will break the mold and improve bilateral relations and trust between the two peoples.

HARBORING HEARTS

Harboring Hearts makes connections like this with all those that it helps. The cost of medical care can be prohibitively high, but this shouldn’t be an issue when the life of a child is on the line. That’s where Harboring Hearts comes in.

Founder Michelle Javian began Harboring Hearts in 2009 after watching her father’s experience recovering from a major heart attack. Waiting for him in the hospital during his care, Javian saw that many families were not lucky enough to have the access to the hospital that she did, due to how far away they lived.

Javian saw them showering at the hospital and surviving off of cafeteria food, unable to travel back and forth easily from their homes from distance and lack of funds. And she knew something had to change.

That’s where Harboring Hearts comes in. Since 2009 the organization has provided over $150,000 in services for families of those affected by heart disease. This money is spent on housing and transportation primarily, ensuring that families have hotels to sleep in and easy access to their sick loved ones.

Their Emergency Program serves to ease the unexpected financial burden of these often expensive diseases while the housing assistance program ensures that mortgages and rental payments on homes are not missed.

Harboring Hearts was honored, through Michelle Javian, as a 2014 CNN Hero. And, they are now expanding operations to the west coast, and work with cardiologist units and social workers at hospitals like UCLA.

Read more about Beautiful Connections, as it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including A Bounty of Beautiful Connections, New Beautiful Brain Connections, Amazing Flavor Love Connections, and 10 New Art Connections that Wow.

Enter your own images and ideas about Beautiful Connections in this week’s creative Photo Competition. Open for entries now until 11:59 p.m. PT on 06.22.14. If you are reading this after that date, check out the current BN Creative Competition, and enter!

PHOTO CREDITS:

1. Photo: Courtesy of Save a Child’s Heart.
2. Photo: Courtesy of Save a Child’s Heart.
3. Photo: Courtesy of Save a Child’s Heart.
4. Photo: Courtesy of Save a Child’s Heart.
5. Photo: Courtesy of Save a Child’s Heart.
6. Photo: Courtesy of Save a Child’s Heart.
7. Photo: Courtesy of Save a Child’s Heart.
8. Photo: Courtesy of Save a Child’s Heart.
9. Photo: Courtesy of Save a Child’s Heart.
10. Photo: Courtesy of Save a Child’s Heart.
11. Photo: by pfly. Bleeding Hearts.
12. Image: Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons. Candy Heart by Michele Tribe.
13. Image: by Stephanie Gough. Hearts and Flowers - RAINBOW - Lampwork Heart Focal Bead.
14. Photo: by aussiegall. String of Hearts.
15. Image: Courtesy of qthomasbower. Big Heart of Art - 1000 Visual Mashups.
16. Photo: by pirate_renee. Gold Hearts.