UNHCR, Italian hospital partner to help refugee, Jordanian children

AMMAN — The UNHCR in Jordan on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the paediatric hospital Bambino Gesu’ to conduct medical interventions for Jordanian and refugee children with serious illnesses.

The partnership will ensure over 300 children receive life-saving surgeries in 2017, a UNHCR statement said.

The collaboration will also allow an exchange of professional expertise between healthcare professionals joining the initiative.

The Bambino Gesù Hospital, located in Rome, Italy, is the largest sub-specialty children’s hospital and research centre in Europe, specialising in transplantation, genetic and metabolic diseases, cardiology and cardiac surgery, neuroscience and rehabilitation, among others, the statement said.

“In a few days, we have already deployed a pediatric cardiovascular surgeon to work closely with the team of the Jordan University Hospital and over 30 children with severe heart malformations received consultation and were selected for future surgeries,” Mariella Enoc, president of the hospital, was quoted in the statement as saying.