Pelo turns 2!

Pelo Foundation is delighted and grateful to have been able to live up to its slogan: Every Beat Counts to raise funds and awareness for children living with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD).

The Foundation launched in the midst of Covid-19 to raise funds to ensure that children with CHD receive life-saving surgeries and medical treatments that could give them a chance in life, is turning two.

This milestone is significant as it is testimony of how the foundation has been changing lives, restoring faith and hope to families, and bringing love and light to these children. It has been an impactful journey of saving the lives of children from indigent communities, and giving them a second chance to live.

Since its inception, the foundation has made it possible for 17 children to receive the life-changing operation. The children that have been operated on are leading healthy and active lifestyles.

One of the children is Zithobile Dayile, a 17-year-old boy, now 19, who was on the waiting list for 16 years and suffered from a faulty tube inside his heart. Today he is leading a sporty lifestyle, thanks to Pelo Foundation and its partners Busamed Hospital Group and, Wing and Wishes.

Another child Lingomso Mhamha, from a small village called Mafini, in Umtata, Eastern Cape also received the much-needed heart surgery.

The four-year-old boy was the youngest child to be operated on. He and his grandmom were flown from Eastern Cape to Johannesburg and back home with the assistance of Wings and Wishes. After the surgery, his delighted grandmother said: “I used to pray every day for my little boy to get healed.”

It is stories like these that keep Pelo Foundation going!

According to Statistics South Africa 2020, the country’s population was estimated at 59.6 million and recorded 1.2 million live births the same year. About 1% of children born in 2020 had CHD, meaning 12 388 new cases were recorded.

Data also indicates that 10–20% of children who don’t receive surgery will not survive and that 1–2 children with CHD die each week. There are about 180 000 patients in the country and due to lack of access to care, only 21%–34.4% of them had undergone previous surgical intervention. The picture is gloomy for these patients as more and more patients with CHD are waiting for surgery.

The foundation aims to continue raising more funds to ensure that children with CHD receive much-needed surgeries and continue to receive medical treatment that could give them another chance to live normal lives.

This dream and milestone would not have been possible without the support of our amazing partners: Busamed Private Hospital Group and Wings and Wishes. Pelo Foundation continues to raise funds and awareness so that more children could receive lifesaving surgeries and treatments. We looking forward to more years of changing lives! Happy Birthday, Pelo Foundation