By Alexa Freedman, Emory Class of 2026
An estimated 5.5 million children in developing nations around the world will die because the required heart surgery they need is unobtainable. Save a Child's Heart (SACH) is committed to changing that.
SACH is an international non-profit organization which provides lifesaving cardiac care to children from 62 developing countries and counting, and offers comprehensive training to medical professionals from these countries, completely free of cost.
This summer, as a part of the Hillels of Georgia Onward Israel program, I had the opportunity to live and work in Tel Aviv, Israel, for eight weeks as an intern at Save a Child’s Heart.
SACH has a wonderful mission, being committed at their core to providing adequate medical care to every child on this Earth, no matter their race, religion, country of origin, or social status. A child is a child. But still, when I accepted this internship and came to Israel, I was unsure what to expect of this job, the organization and the children.
I can say now, in hindsight, that any expectations I might have been able to come up with would have been surpassed immediately and left in the dust. My internship at SACH is one of the most rewarding, incredible experiences I have had in my life and I am so sad to have had to leave.
At the Children’s Home, the kids can be either waiting for their surgery, or recovering and waiting for their discharge home. Days at the Home are filled with light and laughter, upbeat music always blasting on the speakers, a soundtrack to the board games, arts and crafts, make believe, soccer, or whatever else may be going on at any given moment. The children know that if there is an activity they want to do, the volunteers will make it happen. I can’t tell you how many beaded bracelets and necklaces we made this summer, or explain to you the fun we had putting on our very own fashion show with homemade costumes.
Hospital shifts are a unique privilege for us college kids to be working in a real hospital around medical personnel, including surgeons, and see what happens on a hospital ward. SACH interns spend time with the children who are admitted, usually being about to go into surgery in the next few days or a few days post-op recovering. Based on their level of mobility, we either bring activities to their rooms and hang out with them there, or we all congregate in the Education Center Playroom on the pediatric ward.
One of the most meaningful experiences I had this summer, though, was working in the ICU with the children who were immediately post-op or in critical condition. The children in the ICU generally are unable to get out of their beds and as such can get very bored which makes them all the more excited when they see you walk into their room with a box of toys. While I knew that I was making an impact on all of these children all summer, it was in the ICU that I could see my influence most clearly. The children in the ICU would have completely different demeanors when we walked into their rooms than when we walked out. Seeing the children perk up when they spotted us coming to see them, their faces lighting up and clapping their hands, is an image I will never forget.
This summer I also learned so much about communication; we place so much emphasis on verbal communication and language in our day to day lives that oftentimes we forget any other ways to communicate. At SACH, however, many, if not most, of the children spoke little to no English, my first language and that of most of the other interns. A lot of my friends and family would ask me how I communicate with the children without spoken language, and it’s something I worried about at first as well. The answer is: you figure it out. Even without speaking the same language as most of the children, even without being able to have any real conversations, I got to know each and every child personally and form my own relationship with them. I knew what their favorite activities were, when they were in good or bad moods, and how to comfort them when they needed it, all without language.
It struck me many times the symbolism that with all the conflict going on in Israel right now, this was my job this summer: working with children from all over the world, all of us coming together in Israel to heal these children and send them home to their bright futures. Save a Child’s Heart is its own little utopia, a perfect exemplification of the state of Israel, helping everyone around it and not asking anything back in return. What other country would have an organization like this, so dedicated to Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) and helping anyone no matter who they are? I was so privileged to experience Israel this summer in the face of the war, and then go to work everyday to a place where the only thing that mattered was being together and having fun. I had the most amazing time working at Save a Child’s Heart this summer on Onward Israel and I am so grateful to have been part of this organization even for a small time.
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