The Film: Open Heart

Open Heart is the story of eight Rwandan children who embark on a life-saving journey to receive open-heart surgery in Africa’s only free, state-of-the-art cardiac hospital, the Salam Center in Sudan. The children have rheumatic heart disease, which often develops from untreated strep throat—a completely preventable condition if antibiotics like penicillin are available.

Partners In Health: Modern medical care for the poor and marginalized

Partners In Health strives to achieve two overarching goals: to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need of them and to serve as an antidote to despair. 

In Rwanda, that means working with the Government of Rwanda to create a health care system that provides high-quality care to all members of society. It means diagnosing and treating everyday illnesses—such as strep throat—so that no child develops rheumatic heart disease from it, and building the knowledge and facilities to treat those in need of complicated care.  

We're working quickly, but until that capacity exists we're committed to connecting those in urgent need—like the children in Open Heart—to the best resources available.