Faith Barakaeli, a 5-year-old girl, was our first patient to receive life-saving pediatric heart treatment in 2020. Blessed with high intelligence and creativity, she is one of the best students in her class. We met her father when he was in a very tough time, thinking about how his daughter would get an operation and live a healthy life again.

On the day of departure from Tanzania to Raipur, India, for heart surgery, The One New Heart Tanzania team visited her family and spent the whole day with them, giving them hope that everything would be fine and she would regain her healthy heart again.

During this time, Faith seemed to be sad, tired, and lacking an appetite. She also seemed very angry, with difficulty in growth, and shyness, and her face lacked even a tiny smile. According to the doctors, Faith’s heart had a hole of a bigger dimension that could be a bit hard to repair.

Her mother and our team member joined her on the journey with the hope that she would come back with a new and healthy heart. This journey took a whole month from when she received her life-saving heart surgery to when she was recovered and able to travel back to Tanzania.

Doctors said that her surgery took a very long time and they had to stop other procedures that day. Her mother was a bit worried and used to pray hard during this hard time. After total recovery, she came back to Tanzania and had a couple of rest before continuing with her studies.

A year after her surgery, she started growing healthy and a smile came on her face. Now she is a teenager and healthy like any other child who has never had any heart defect before.

Faith traveled 3,465 miles from Tanzania to Raipur, India, to receive her healthy heart gift. Many hands contributed to making this miracle happen.

Join us at One Heart Travel, where we transform your ordinary safari into a healthy heart journey for all needy children.