CFACH Medical Missions
At Care for a Child's Heart (CFACH), our medical missions bring together leading international and local cardiac specialists to provide life-saving surgical and interventional care for children living with congenital heart disease (CHD). Through these collaborative missions, CFACH strengthens local healthcare capacity while ensuring that children from underserved communities receive the specialized treatment they need.
CFACH partners with leading healthcare institutions across Kenya, including Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital, Kenyatta National Hospital, M.P. Shah Hospital, Avenue Hospital, and Tenwek Hospital, among others, to expand access to quality pediatric cardiac care throughout the region.
Since its inception, CFACH has supported more than 500 children, with over 439 undergoing successful life-saving cardiac surgeries. Our comprehensive approach extends beyond surgery to include patient screening, diagnostic testing, cardiac catheterization, post-operative follow-up, accommodation at the Family Support Center, transportation assistance, essential medications, and family support services.
In 2024, CFACH reached an important milestone by completing 73 cardiac surgeries and 12 cardiac catheterization procedures, conducting 253 clinical reviews, dispensing 236 essential medications, and providing accommodation and support for 128 families through our Family Support Center. The year also marked a historic achievement with East Africa's first Nikaidoh procedure, giving five-year-old Sahara a new chance at life.
Building on this momentum, CFACH continued expanding its reach in 2025 and 2026 through additional surgical and interventional missions. A significant milestone was the establishment of a new partnership with Tenwek Hospital, where CFACH successfully completed its inaugural pediatric cardiac surgery mission in July 2026. This collaboration represents an important step toward increasing access to specialized cardiac care for children across Kenya.
CFACH is deeply grateful to the Emirates Airline Foundation for its generous support in providing international flights for the volunteer clinicians who participate in our medical missions. This partnership enables highly skilled surgeons, cardiologists, anesthesiologists, nurses, perfusionists, and other specialists from around the world to serve alongside Kenyan healthcare professionals, making life-saving treatment possible for hundreds of children.
In addition to our medical missions, CFACH continues to mobilize resources through strategic partnerships and fundraising initiatives to reduce the waiting list for children in need of heart surgery. Together with our dedicated volunteers, healthcare professionals, donors, and partners, we remain committed to strengthening pediatric cardiac care in Kenya and ensuring that every child has the opportunity to live a healthy life.
How Our Medical Missions Work
Each stage of the mission is designed to ensure that children receive the highest standard of cardiac care, while empowering local healthcare teams to sustain this impact.
Global Collaboration
CFACH's medical missions are powered by volunteer clinicians from around the world, including pediatric cardiac surgeons, anesthetists, cardiologists, and nurses. These professionals work alongside local healthcare teams, sharing their skills and expertise while performing surgeries. This collaboration not only saves lives but also enhances the capacity of Kenyan hospitals to manage pediatric heart conditions independently.
Patient Selection & Preparation
Before each mission, CFACH partners with local doctors to identify children in need of surgery through rigorous screening and diagnostic processes. Patients are selected based on the urgency and complexity of their heart defects. CFACH covers all associated costs, including diagnostics, travel, and accommodation for families.
Life-Saving Surgeries
During each mission, the medical teams perform complex heart surgeries using cutting-edge techniques. In a typical mission, over 40 surgeries can be conducted in just a few weeks, transforming the lives of children who would otherwise have limited access to this level of care.
Capacity Building
One of the key goals of CFACH missions is to strengthen the local healthcare infrastructure. International volunteers provide hands-on training to Kenyan doctors, nurses, and technicians, ensuring that the knowledge and skills remain long after the mission ends. This sustainable approach enables local teams to eventually perform surgeries independently.
Follow-Up Care
CFACH is committed to long-term outcomes. After surgery, children receive follow-up care and medications, ensuring their recovery is successful. Families are also provided with accommodation at the CFACH Family Support Center during and after treatment.
Medical Missions and Capacity Building
Our work relies heavily on the contributions of international medical mission teams. In collaboration with volunteer surgeons, anaesthesiologists and perfusionists from Italy, Saudi Arabia, India and the United States, CFACH organizes mission trips during which up to 2-3 surgeries are performed each day.
These missions are supported by organizations like the Emirates Airlines Foundation, which generously provides airfare for medical teams, and partners like Medtronics, Medical Bridges and Nuvance Health who donate essential medical supplies. Each mission requires intensive ICU monitoring and postoperative care, provided by trained Kenyan nurses and intendivists, whose skills have been enhanced through CFACH-led training programs.
We have also been fortunate to receive donations of state-of-the-art medical equipment, which has significantly upgraded the quality of care available in Kenya. Through this work, we are helping to build sustainable medical capacity, training local healthcare professionals, and conducting research that will contribute to better outcomes for children with heart defects.
Volunteer with us
If you're a medical professional eager to make a difference, we welcome you to join our mission. Our volunteers find the experience deeply rewarding, as they help save lives while contributing to the long-term development of cardiac care in Kenya.
Together, we can create a brighter future for children. Volunteer with us!
To apply for a volunteer position with CFACH, please fill out the corresponding Google Form provided below. If you have any questions or require further information, please feel free to email us at [email protected] or call us on+254786306415.