They said it was witchcraft. Her mother took her to a doctor anyway

The family lives in Musoma, in Tanzania's Mara Region. Nobody around them had heard of a child being born with a heart problem, so people found their own explanations. Some blamed family planning pills. Some said it was witchcraft. Some said the family had not followed the customs.

Catherine's mother did not accept those explanations. She took her daughter to the regional hospital, and the hospital referred them to Bugando Medical Centre in Mwanza.

At Bugando, doctors found the cause. Catherine had a ventricular septal defect, a hole in the wall between the two lower chambers of her heart. It is one of the most common heart defects that children are born with. Medicine can ease the symptoms for a while, but a hole of this kind is closed by surgery, and that surgery was not available in Mwanza.

In May 2026 The One New Heart Tanzania and Benjamin Mkapa Hospital held a children's heart screening and surgery camp in Dodoma, about 900 kilometres from the family's home. The family had very little money. Her mother took her anyway.

On 28 May 2026, at one year and two months old, Catherine had her heart repaired in Dodoma. She recovered in the intensive care unit and went home with her mother.

Her mother's message to other parents is simple. If your child breathes too fast, tires quickly or is not gaining weight, do not wait and do not listen to the fear around you. Take the child to be checked. The earlier a heart problem is found, the more can be done.

Thousands of children in Tanzania are born with the same defect as Catherine, and most of them are never diagnosed. Catherine was diagnosed because her mother kept asking questions until she found the answer.