Gift of Life’s newest global initiative is our involvement in Uganda, where so many children are in need of our help. Uganda is home to the first child we ever helped – Grace Agwaru – more than 33 years ago. The country and many of its citizens share a special relationship with Gift of Life.
After months of preparation, we were able to send 30 Ugandan children to 25 separate Gift of Life affiliated hospitals in 13 countries in early May 2009.
This is the beginning of our efforts to help Uganda develop a sustainable pediatric cardiac surgery program of its own. Once the children have received their lifesaving surgeries they will become examples of the possibilities of Rotary. After we have healed the child’s heart, we need to make sure they have clean water, are fed, are taught to read, are protected from disease and become self-sufficient. This will be a call to action for those Rotarians who are in a position to help.
We’ll devote part of our blog to the stories of these children, crafted through testimonials, notes of thanks, photos and videos. We hope you’ll check back to learn about the progress of these wonderful children and how we at Gift of Life are privileged to be able to offer them a life-saving surgery.
The above photos represent the experience we had when many of our children arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, and were greeted with smiles and warm welcomes. They met our teams, our volunteers, hosts, and many other individuals involved at Gift of Life. It’s a day they won’t soon forget.
