Cairo & Abu Dhabi - The Zayed Giving Initiative has started volunteer programmes in Egyptian villages to treat children and elderly people suffering from cardiac diseases, under the supervision of the UAE, Egyptian and international experts. This programme is part of the humanitarian campaign launched by the Zayed Giving Initiative in response to the declaration of the UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan that 2017 would be the Year of Giving, while continuing its previous initiatives in various Egyptian villages. The joint UAE-Egyptian programme to treat cardiac patients has received the support of many health and volunteering associations, as it represents a quantum leap in the level of services provided by UAE, Egyptian, French and other international experts under the framework of a voluntary humanitarian umbrella, Humanitarian Work Ambassador Dr. Reem Othman noted. It also provides opportunities to medical staff to receive practical training and learn the advanced techniques being used in cardiac medicine and surgery, Othman added. UAE cardiac surgeon Dr. Adel Al Shameri, CEO of Zayed Giving Initiative, revealed that the UAE-Egyptian medical camps would take forward the humanitarian mission already implemented in various Egyptian governorates, with more than 900,000 children and elderly people being treated, and over 1,000 cardiac surgeries being performed at the Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Sheikh Zayed city and Ain Shams University Hospital in Cairo. Egyptian cardiac surgeon Ahmed Al Kerdany said the surgeries were part of a recent agreement to organise more than 50 medical camps and perform more than 1,000 cardiac surgeries within the framework of the Zayed Giving Initiative to promote joint activities between the medical volunteers and co-operation between UAE and Egyptian health associations in the field of medical and humanitarian work to improve diagnostic services and treatment provided to cardiac patients in Egypt. Moza Al Otaiba, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Zayed Giving Initiative, remarked that the volunteers for the campaign had set exemplary standards in team work and community volunteering by putting in thousands of hours of work in many countries.
