The answer was in Tanzania all along
Jackrine was born on 30 March 2016 at Chimala Mission Hospital, in the Mbarali District of Mbeya, in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. She is the third of five children, and she grew up in Kibaoni village, Ihahi Ward, where her parents, Wilbert John Kiyombo and Lea Yoel Mbongo, farm on a small scale.
Photo credit: The One New Heart Tanzania
Almost from birth she was unwell. She had fevers and coughs that kept coming back, and her parents took her to Chimala Hospital again and again. Each time, nothing was found. This went on for years.
She was five before anyone found the cause. Doctors at Mbeya Referral Hospital identified a heart defect, and it needed specialist treatment that was not available where she lived.
In March 2024 she came to a children's heart screening camp run by The One New Heart Tanzania. Over three days, the 13th to the 15th, more than 300 children were screened. Jackrine was one of them, and it was here that the severity of her condition was confirmed and surgery was recommended.
Then came a run of setbacks. The first plan was to send her to the United States, to Children's Memorial Hermann, with a sponsor covering the treatment. She and her father applied for visas and were refused, and the plan stopped there. A second chance came through a heart surgery camp in Kenya, run by Care for a Child's Heart. That one fell through as well.
Both attempts to take her out of the country had failed. What finally worked was closer to home. On 6 March 2025, at the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute in Dar es Salaam, Jackrine had the procedure she needed. It was done, and it was done in Tanzania.
This came together through a number of hands:
Published with the family's written consent.
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