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I’m a mother of two, my daughter who is about to turn 15 has a complex congenital heart defect and has had several heart operations throughout her life at Children’s hospital in Boston. When I was pregnant with her and found out that she had CHD, I immediately started to look if there was a…

Rheumatic Heart Disease Philippines was founded in 2017 because of my wife who has RHD. At first we didn’t know anything about RHD, but my search on social media connected us to a community of other RHD patients and their families. Together we exchange knowledge, and share experiences about the hardships and sacrifices we have…

CHD Awareness Day recap Every February 7-14 patient and family advocates around the world participate in Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) Awareness Week. It is a time to raise awareness of CHD in their local communities. Global ARCH and Children’s HeartLink are two leading childhood-onset heart disease advocacy organizations that work to improve lifelong outcomes worldwide. What…

1. What would you suggest to parents of CHD children when it comes to building resiliency so that mental health issues can be addressed early? I’d like to first say that I have a great deal of respect for parents and caregivers of children with CHD – I recognize how stressful their own experiences can…

In early June Brave Little Hearts Zimbabwe participated in our National Youth Business Expo, as we are looking at establishing sustainable projects to help empower our communities to attain financial freedom. This is so important because donors are hard to come by, and the financial burden of heart communities is so huge. Our target is…

I’m Belen Blanton, President of Estrellita de Belen Foundation. I was born with a congenital heart defect called tricuspid atresia causing me to now suffer from Eisenmenger Syndrome.  I now dedicate my life to fight for children with congenital heart defects in my country of Venezuela. The situation in my country has more than 4,000…

It was through the journey and loss of my Brave Little Girl, Rudo, in 2018, that birthed Brave Little Hearts Zimbabwe. It began by me seeking justice on the treatment we encountered at the hospital that resulted in the negligent loss of my child’s life, and to honour the good fight that our Brave Little…

Comparable to the condition when wind blows and we get random thoughts, alike human emotions are effected by outer elements.  The stigmas of society some way disturb us; moving us away from our own planned paths. Though life is full of uncertainties, we still believe we are best in making decisions. Ignoring the fact that…

This Congenital Heart Awareness Week (February 7-14) I’m “celebrating” from my bed in a downtown Toronto hospital. I’ve been here too many times in the past 11 months, since just before we had the first COVID-19 lockdown. My heart defect, called tetralogy of Fallot, started causing my heart to beat so fast that it feels like I have…