Youngsters have happy hearts thanks to Pelo Foundation
Organisation and its partners doing important work to assist children battling congenital disease
In just one year, the Pelo Foundation has made a life-changing difference in the lives of dozens of Eastern Cape children born with congenital heart disease.
In celebrating its anniversary yesterday, the organisation reaffirmed its commitment to the cause.
About one out of every 1,000 babies is born with congenital heart disease (CHD), and every six hours a newborn is added to the waiting list for heart surgeries, which already contains the names of hundreds of children.
The statistic forms the basis of the foundation’s efforts to assist the more than 500 children in Nelson Mandela Bay who are still on a waiting list.
Three of the foundation’s beneficiaries attended the oneyear celebration at the Dora Nginza Hospital College of Emergency Care yesterday with beaming smiles and grateful, healthy hearts.
The parents of Cayson Cerfonteyn, 10, Tameeka Isaacs, 8, and Anathi Foster, 10, said had it not been for the organisation’s intervention, their stories could potentially have been very different.
Janice Cerfonteyn, 39, from Gelvandale, said since birth Cayson had struggled with heavy breathing and sweating.
At the age of five months, his parents learnt he had CHD.
“We were told that within five years the hole in the heart would close down, but there was more damage within the period,” she said.
The foundation and its partners, among them Gqeberha-based Wings and Wishes, Dora Nginza Hospital and Busamed, stepped in and arranged for surgery to take place in Cape Town in December 2020.
Cayson was at a loss for words as he thanked the organisation and its partners, saying “I cannot even explain it.”
Since its inception in June last year, the Pelo Foundation and its partners have helped nine children to receive crucial heart surgeries.
Pelo Foundation operations manager Dudu Mvimbi said they had opted to celebrate the organisation’s anniversary in September to coincide with Heart Awareness Month.
Mvimbi said it had been reported that 96% of children
‘We were told that within five years the hole in the heart would close down, but there was more damage within the period’
‘Looking at where we are, we can see the need, and we understand there is no funding even in corporates, but we want people to be aware of these kinds of heart diseases’
with congenital abnormalities in 2010 lived in rural areas, and this had factored into why the foundation had decided to operate in the Eastern Cape.
“Looking at where we are, we can see the need, and we understand there is no funding even in corporates, but we want people to be aware of these kinds of heart diseases.
“But if they could help to sponsor — that is why we decided to celebrate during Heart Awareness Month — to educate people as well,” Mvimbi said.
Tameeka’s grandmother, Zelda Bonnesse, 48, from Heath Park, said they found out after her birth that she had a hole in her heart.
When Tameeka was seven, the hole became bigger, and there were two additional smaller holes.
“I was crying all the time,” Bonnesse said.
“We are not on medical aid. “However, I believe in the power of prayer; I feel God blessed us.
“If not for the foundation, I do not how this [surgery] would have happened,” she said tearfully.
Dora Nginza Hospital paediatric cardiologist Dr Samkelo Jiyana said the paediatric cardiology division was started in 2009. “The Pelo Foundation collaborated with us to [identify] those children who needed surgery and would have a short stay in hospital,” he said.
Busamed group clinical manager Dr Christelle de Jager said they had decided to partner with the foundation because some of their specialists had worked in the Eastern Cape and understood the need in the area.
Wings and Wishes manager Inge Human said they opted to partner by transporting the children as needed, “as every child deserves access to medical treatment”.