The Gift of Life Programme has provided live saving medical procedures for hundreds of Belizean children over the past 36 years. That's right, Gift of Live has been active in Belize since 1977! And there are many twenty something, thirty something and forty something adults who can tell you that it works, because without the programme, they might not be here.
Today, the founder of Gift of Life International Robbie Donno arrived in Belize on a drive to continue the good work and hopefully grow the programme. He told us about his mission:
Robbie Donno - Founder, Gift of Life
"The reason that we're down here, in part, is to try and make connections with the business community, in particular, the tourist industry, where we can develop new sources of revenue for the Belize Rotary Gift of Life, so that they can operate on more children. They started, when this program started here in Belize, they were doing 2 or 3 children a year, and now this year, they've done over 17 children already, and in their history, have done about almost 300 since they started, children here in Belize. So, their pus - and our push in coordination with them, is to try and help develop better ways of raising the funds that are going to reach the children that are still waiting for their second chance at life."
One high profile case sponsored by Gift of Life is Genesis Fuentes. The Belizean child was born with a hole in her heart and in late January she travelled to Connecticut to have a four-hour life-saving surgery. They fixed her up and she returned home a month ago. But the healing was also for the community that fund-raised for her procedure. Newtown Connecticut lost 20- children in the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. And they agreed to fund procedures for 20 children in the Gift of Life programme. Genesis was one of them. Donno explained how it helped Newtown:
Robbie Donno
"The Genesis is a beautiful child, big brown eyes, engaging smile. Melanie, who's her cousin, who escorted here, were both terrific representatives of Belize. And that Rotary Club responded; they loved them; and now, because of Genesis and that experience that they went through, the path - the journey - is taking another course, because they want to operate on 19 more children, and are raising the money, so that they can operate a child for every child that was taken from them. So, Genesis, her name, her personality, her big brown eyes, her smile - infected them as children do. So, they're one a whole new path."
The surgery was performed at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York. Gift of Life Belize works with its partners to identify patients, doctors, and the facilities that are willing to accept these cases for Open heart surgeries and cardiac procedures at a nominal fee. They facilitate the travel, including visas and airfare. It also hosts in-country semi-annual clinics and in August 2012 Dr. Paul Chai of Tampa Children's Hospital, Florida and Dr. Adrian Coye of Belize performed surgeries on three children with simple heart defects at the KHMH.
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