The president of SACH, Yoram Cohen, received the "Yanzhao Friendship Award" from the People's Government of Hebei Province on Sept. 29.
The award is given to foreign individuals and organizations every year for their outstanding contributions to Hebei Province.
"I didn't expect that our work would get so much recognition," said Cohen. "I hope that in the future we can help more children in China and give them a carefree childhood."
SACH members have traveled China giving free treatment and surgery to poor children. They also chose more than 40 children with complex conditions and sent them to Israel or the United States for treatment.
"Apart from giving surgery to the children, we have tried to help improve the quality of the cardiac care at the hospital by giving the doctors academic and technical guidance and support," said Cohen.
SACH has also opened training courses for about 1,000 local doctors and more than 10 doctors went to Israel to join workshops held by SACH.
CHD is a major cause of childhood deaths in China, where more than 200,000 children are born with CHD each year and only around 70,000 are treated, said Wang Jianming, cardiac surgeon at Hebei Children's Hospital.
"Our hospital owes those foreign experts a lot," said Wang. "Before, we dared not to operate on babies younger than 3 months old, but now it is routine surgery at our hospital."
Cohen said, "We believe that to save a child is to save the world.
