Published on March 31, 2020

Because of your support, you are making medical care for children like Aina in Malaysia both timely and accessible closer to home. This 18-month-girl from a small town had surgery at our partner hospital in Sepang, Serdang Hospital. These photos were taken a few days before Aina returned home after her journey of heart repair and recovery.

Aina’s mother Norhayati faced additional challenges maintaining her work as a teacher while also commuting to the hospital to care for her daughter. Still, Norhayati says all this was not a hardship because Aina has such a sunny personality and is a joy to be around. After spending a few months at the hospital, they both appeared excited to go home soon.

Children’s HeartLink works in five countries: Brazil, China, India, Malaysia and Vietnam. We focus on training in-country medical providers. The training is done in partnerships with top medical volunteer teams from the US, Canada and the UK. Last year alone, 4,000 medical providers were trained and went on to serve 171,000 children. In our 50 years, we have helped over one million children with heart disease. A staggering 90% of children born with a heart defect worldwide still lack access to care. In the next 10 years, Children’s HeartLink is committed to reaching one million more children.