Faith: our first patient, a month away from home

Faith was five years old when she became the first child The One New Heart Tanzania supported to receive heart treatment, in 2020. Bright and creative, she is one of the best students in her class.

We met her father at a very hard time, when he was trying to work out how his daughter could get an operation and be healthy again. Faith herself seemed sad and tired. She had little appetite, was easily upset and shy, was not growing well and rarely smiled. The doctors had found a large hole in her heart that would not be simple to repair.

On the day she left Tanzania for Raipur, our team visited the family and spent the whole day with them. Her mother and one of our team members travelled with her.

The operation took a very long time, so long that the hospital had to postpone other procedures planned for that day. Her mother waited anxiously and prayed through it.

From the surgery to being well enough to fly home took a whole month. Once fully recovered, Faith came back to Tanzania, rested for a while and then went back to school.

A year after surgery she was growing well and the smile had come back. Today she is a teenager, as healthy as any child who never had a heart problem.

Faith travelled 3,465 miles for her treatment. Many hands made it possible. Our aim now is that fewer children have to travel that far, which is why we host surgical missions inside Tanzania and why One Heart Travel exists: it commits 50% of its profits to supporting children's heart treatment.