By: Nyima Sillah
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ML Heart Foundation, Modoulamin Camara has requested for help to enable him support patients with heart problems especially children needing overseas treatment.
“We have to work hand in hand with the government because I am here to complement their efforts. They should not see me as a young person or any other person but the work that I am doing should inspire them to help me, and help the patients on their treatments,’’ CEO Camara told The Voice in an exclusive interview.
‘’If I have the support, I can bring some doctors from Turkey and other countries to come here and offer some of the services in the country for free,” he added.
According to Camara, the number of heart patients is daily increasing and the children have a future that they all need to protect. “I have the contact but cannot proceed because I am alone, I don’t have the finance to support or bring those doctors but with them (the Government) we can do a lot to help these patients,” Mr. Camara contended.
He explained that there are certain cardiac corrections that one doesn’t need to pay ticket to go oversea if the doctors come here, they can do it in the country without the patients spending huge money to go abroad.
The Foundation CEO stated that the advocacy level about the issues of heart failure is “very” low, adding the Ministry of Health should do more sensitization on heart diseases as heath is not only about treatment but prevention is a key point to consider.
“If sensitization is done and a conduciveenvironment is provided for these patients to do their treatment, it would help in minimizing the numbers.”
He further stated that people contact him when they are advised to go for overseas treatment and he had tried twice to have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government to no avail.
“I wrote to the Ministry of Health. No response. I contacted the government’s spokesperson to help us have funds but he said the government has no funds for such cases, so I have no positive response from both ends,” he said.