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Over the past 33 years the Gift of Life movement has evolved to become a major force in providing cardiac care to the children who otherwise would not have access. The Gift of Life programs may vary between Rotary Clubs and Districts worldwide.

These programs include:

Medical Outreach Missions & Regional Surgical Hubs

Teams of medical professionals and Rotarians (on occasion) volunteer their time and often pay their own expenses to travel to developing countries to perform life saving heart surgery. These medical teams ideally are comprised of a Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon, Pediatric Anesthesiologist, Pediatric Intensivist, Pediatric Critical Care Nurses, and Pediatric Cardiologist. The teams are often made up of highly trained medical professionals from around the world, creating a true international effort. The incoming medical professionals join the local medical staff to provide a 24/7 working team Pediatric Cardiac Care team who will provide 12-25 children with life-saving cardiac surgical procedures during the two week mission.

This concept is the newest and most exciting GOL program. This program involves the establishment and support of a permanent medical facility or department within an existing hospital that will provides life saving heart surgery to the poorest of the poor children in several global locations, on-going training of medical professionals. The Regional Surgical Hubs are supported by Outreach Medical Mission teams on a regular basis. The long-term objective is to prepare to the facility to function independently.

These programs offer five distinct advantages over the single child hosting programs:

♥Ability to provide quality cardiac care to far more children of the under served regions of the world thereby, furthering Rotary’s mission of peace through understanding.

♥Provide the opportunity for Rotary District 7980 GOL organization to establish working partnerships with other Rotary GOL Districts, doctors specializing in cardiac care, medical professionals, hospital administrators, and non-profits NGO’s involved with providing cardiac services.

♥Pool our respective resources to maximize the benefit from each donated dollar providing safe and cost effective manner cardiac care.

♥Local medical professionals receive education/training pediatric cardiac surgical techniques, the use of new medications, diagnostic procedures and pre-post operative care management to improve overall cardiac care.

♥Significant medical and cultural education and experience is gain by the visiting medical teams from the local peoples of the region visited.

Sponsoring and Hosting

An individual child requiring open-heart surgery is sponsored and hosted within a Rotary's geographic districts. This program has been the mainstay of Gift of Life and will continue to be in many Rotary Clubs and Districts.

Sponsoring a child in their native country

Rotary Gift of Life organizations can act as a resource to guide and arrange for medical care in the country in which the child lives through their worldwide network Rotarians, medical professionals and organizations involved in humanitarian mission work.