Infancia Solidaria

“Sana - sana” A Surgical Care Program

The Sana-Sana program (Sana means healthy in Spanish) owes its name to our desire to help as many children from developing countries as we can in need a surgery and who can not be operated in their own country, either because the child's family can not afford it and the health care service is private and expensive., or because there are no human or technical means to carry it out.

We are aware that there are many countries where the health care programs are semi -private meaning that patients must pay for part of the services received.( usually one doesn't pay for the health professionals but for tests or anesthesia , for any diagnostic test or for the patients room and food). The fact is that the poorest families of the country, those who can hardly feed themselves, can not go to the hospital because they can not afford it.

Much to our regret we can not accept , (because we lack the capacity for it) cases of children who need financial help to buy medicines . Nor cases of children who need constant assistance like continuous rehabilitation or who will need subsequent surgeries during their lives.

We try to accept and deal with all cases of children who are already diagnosed (this is another serious problem that exists in countries where, for lack of medical services, many children who are already sick are not diagnosed) and who, with just one surgical operation, will be cured.

In Infancia Solidaria we try to help these sick children who need surgery either by:

• Paying for the operation . (In their own country whenever it's possible and the cost of it doesn't exceed the cost of bringing the child to Spain . Or when the child doesn't have any legal documents as is the case for millions of them who aren't registered anywhere and thus making it almost impossible to get them a passport )

• Bringing them to Spain to have surgery in public hospital or, in private ones as well when they offer to help us.

Any person or institution who would like to tell us about a child who might need our help should write to us at is@infanciasolidaria.org and send us , when possible, the latest medical report scanned and a picture of that child.

Official procedures to bring a child to Spain for surgery.

If the child comes with it's mother or it's legal tutor:

• We must receive the clinical reports and tests from the child's country of origin ( in Spanish, English or French )

• We must receive a certificate from the child's country of origin , duly signed and sealed by a hospital from that country, which certifies that the surgery needed by that child cannot be performed in that country.

• We submit these documents to Spanish doctors for acceptance.

• With the three documents above we file for an authorization from the Health Authorities of the Autonomous Community in which the child will be operated in Spain

• Once we have the authorization we can apply for the visa to bring the child to Spain . We will need help from the NGO or the local counterpart from the child's country who presented the case to us.

• We then look for a foster family in Spain who will provide full boarding.

• We coordinate our team of voluntaries to make sure the logistics.function.

If the child comes alone there are additional legal requirements:

• The foster family will have to certify before a Notary Public that, while the child is in Spain , they will not initiate any adoption procedure. They will also have to guarantee that they will facilitate the child's return, once he has been given medical discharge, with no cost to the Spanish public administration.

• With this certificate from the Notary we will have to inform the Social Affairs Administration of the foster arrangement and request their authorization.( a police report on the family will be requested and, if there are no problems, they will allow the fostering )

• With the consent from the Social Affairs Administration we then have to apply for an authorization of entrance in Spain from the Government's sub-department. ……..

• And with this last authorization from the Government's sub-department, the Embassies will grant the visas..

To initiate these four steps it is necessary to have the authorization from the Health Authorities beforehand.

All these previous steps are one of the two paths that converge in the Spanish Embassy in the child's country.

The other path is the authorization which both parents (even if separated) or the legal tutor must sign at the Embassy authorizing the trip.

And these are our friends who will be forever in our hearts:

2009

We need foster families for both Genet: 9 years and her mother and Marta: 19 years old with her mother as well.

Both have heart problems and need surgery outside of Ethiopia . They will probably be here by the end of March (we will send photos). They will be operated on in Madrid 's hospital Ramon y Cajal. Their clinical history was presented to us by our dear friends The Salesian Missionaries of Zway.

And also tell you about our two new projects that are already underway and that bring us great joy:

a-To bring, one by one and during one year, 12 children with heart problems from Nadar, Morocco together with the Adelias Foundation who has a health project there. The idea is to bring the children to the hospitals Materno Infantil in Malaga and Ramon y Cajal in Madrid . We will let you know as we will also need foster families for those children and their mothers. We are planning on starting in March or April.

b- We are moving heaven and earth to be able to bring a group of 10 children from Gaza , all at the same time, to be operated in Madrid , due to the precarious health situation they are having there at the present.

Thank you to everybody for allowing us to send these messages so full of future for many children.

Aya has been checked-in the hospital Ramon y Cajal on the 16.03-2009. Surgery will be performed the Monday after.

Bilal has been checked-in the hospital Ramon y Cajal on the 16-03-2009. Surgery will be performed the Wednesday after.

Simo is an 8 year old boy from Cameroon who needs a cornea transplant due to an prolonged infection in his eyes.(We are not permitted to bring children who need organ transplants but we can accept cases of soft tissue transplant like this one.)

Pampa , 15 years old, is a girl from India who needs heart surgery in a private hospital.

Rahda, 10 years old, from India needs heart surgery in a private hospital .

Ulises is 2 months old. He has a very serious heart problem. In El Salvador , his country, he cannot be operated. We have submitted the documents to bring him and his mother as soon as possible to the hospital Gregorio Marañon who has accepted the case.

Eraste, 7 years old, from Cameroon . He has a very serious heart problem. In his country he was offered to go to Paris and have surgery there for 21.000 euros He will come with his grandmother .We have presented the documents to bring him, as soon as possible, to the Ramon y Cajal who has accepted the case.

Abubakar, 8 years old, is from Kenia. He has a heart problem. The Foundation Pablo Horstmann and Infancia Solidaria have cooperated in bringing him and his mother to Spain .

Berektemykael , 4 years old, is from Ethiopia . He has a congenital heart problem and will come with his mother.

2008

Daniel is 10 months old and has an obstruction in his urethra that is causing him severe infections. He is from Ethiopia and comes from the same orphanage as Hanna.

In Latin-America children with Down syndrome are referred to as “special children “. Jimmy , 10 months old, Colombian, is special. He has a congenital malformation of the heart.

Isaac is 5 years old. He suffers from Tuberous Sclerosis which produces multiple, daily epileptic seizures. He will have his preoperative operation in the hospital Ramon y Cajal but will undergo surgery in the hospital Niño Jesus.

Leydi is from Guatemala . A friend from Infancia Solidaria has donated the money necessary to operate her in Guatemala . She will undergo hip replacement on both hips thus enabling her to be out of a wheelchair. But first she has to have a kidney transplant which she will get soon.

Mudhat , 9 months old, is from Kenia and she has a heart problem. Her case history was sent to us by the Foundation Pablo Horstmann. This Foundation is doing an incredible job in their pediatric hospital in Lamu, Kenia. We recommend you to take a look at their web: www.fundacionpablo.org . She was operated successfully on the 13 th of October.

Ariel, 5 months old, had Down syndrome and a heart problem. Although he was operated in Ramon y Cajal , he died soon after.

Cirilo , from Dominican Republic had a heart problem, and was operated on 06-08-2008 . 15-08-2008. Cirilo was discharged temporarily. His blood coagulation is not functioning as it should and he has been given a 90 day treatment to regulate it. 30-10-2008 : Cirilo will have to stay with us 3 more months to control his coagulation.

Hanna, 2 years old, is from Ethiopia . She has a serious congenital malformation of the heart. The surgery was a total success and Hanna went back to her country.

Nour Hajar , 10 years old, Moroccan . Brain artery malformation. She was operated successfully in the hospital Gregorio Marañon of Madrid and is now back in Morocco . She will come back in one year for a total check-up.

2007

Simran, 4 years old, from Calcutta , India . Heart problem. There is more information about Simran in the blog: http://mm-cuadernodebitacora.blogspot.com/2008/01/la-m-manda.html

Nour Palestine, can already hear thanks to the, Cochlear Implant. Now she has to learn to interpret the different sounds.

Lesley. Dominican Republic , has completely recovered from her heart problem due to the success of her surgery and her life expectancy has increased incredibly. More about Lesley on the blog: http://mm-cuadernodebitacora.blogspot.com/2007/10/pequeo-y-gran-corazn.html

Zahra. Iraq After 6 months in Spain , Zahra has returned to her home which she missed tremendously but she will have to come back, probably in one year, to continue her plastic surgery treatment.

http://mm-cuadernodebitacora.blogspot.com/2007/06/kim-phuc-1972-zahra-2007.html

Karima .. Morocco . As a consequence of a broken femur, she developed a serious infection which left her with a limp. It is expected that she will recover fully after the operation.

Franck .Burundi After realizing a comprehensive neurological and physiotherapeutic study of this boy, he was able to walk without help after only 2 months of practising the exercises recommended to him by doctors.

Cesar . Colombia . .Urinary and faecal incontinence.

Mustafa. Morocco . Congenital Cataracts. He went back home with a visual acuity of 100%.,

2006

Mohamed , Morocco , Club feet. He could not walk when he arrived. 5 months later he left walking.

Osvin, 9 years old, was operated from hydrocephalus in Quetzaltenango .Infancia Solidaria took care of all expenses and the surgery was a total success.

Celeste, 14 years old, suffered from club feet and had to undergo 2 surgeries in Quetzaltenango, all paid by Infancia Solidaria.