NOVEMBER 2, 2025
#20kmGeneve
RUN FOR CHILDREN WITH HEART PAIN!
1 in 100 children worldwide are born with a heart defect. In some countries, there are neither the technical nor financial means to operate on them. It is for these children that Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque acts:
to finance their operation in Switzerland, France or Spain and offer them a second birth.
You can help us save children with heart disease around the world by taking part in the Balexert 20km in Geneva: dedicate a few kilometres or your entire race by making a donation and make your heart beat for that of children!
The medical care of a child costs the Association an average of €12,000 (or CHF xxx). If each participant registered for the Balexert 20km of Geneva makes a donation, together we can save a child!
This is the best reward!
Cardiac Surgery Sponsorship in Switzerland
Since the creation of the Association in 1996 by Professor Francine Leca, 5,000 children have been treated. At the end of 2022, Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque began a collaboration with the hospitals of Geneva and Lausanne and already nearly 400 children have benefited from the repair of their heart disease in Switzerland.
Children aged two and under are cared for by volunteer foster families who care for them from their arrival through their surgery and recovery until they return home.
As for children over two years old, they stay at La Maison Terre des Hommes Valais, a reassuring and comfortable place to live where other children and caring staff surround them. This medical center located in Massongex welcomes them with attention, accompanying them from their arrival, sick, until their departure, in full health.
Ils n’avaient pas la chance d’être opérés dans leur pays mais nous avons réparé leur cœur en Suisse
Abdoulkarim, 3 ans, Comores
Cheikh Ahmad Bamba, 1,5 an, Sénégal
Guy Charmant, 6 ans, Burundi
Mael, 1 an, RDC
Ndiaga, 1 an, Sénégal
Reem, 2 ans, Syrie
Shadia, 5 ans, Burundi
How to act with Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque?
By making a donation when you register for the Balexert 20km of Geneva or now using the donation form:
Or by becoming a host family :
Host families play an essential role in the journey of sick children by accommodating them and taking care of them for an average of 8 weeks, from meeting the child at the airport, sick, until their departure, cured, and throughout their health journey. Everyone can join our team, whether you are single, married, with or without children... You only need to have a vehicle, be available full-time for the child and live approximately an hour's drive from the HUG in Geneva.
About Cardiac Surgery Patronage
Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque allows children with heart defects to be operated on in 2 cities in Switzerland (Geneva and Lausanne), 11 cities in France (Angers, Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Paris, Saint-Denis de La Réunion, Strasbourg, Toulouse and Tours) and 1 city in Spain (Cordoba) when this is impossible in their country due to lack of technical or financial means. They are then accommodated by volunteer host families and sometimes in a foster home in Switzerland.
More than 5,000 children have been cared for since the Association was created in 1996 by Professor Francine Leca, founder of Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque.
More information on mecenat-cardiaque.org
Contact: +33 (0)1 49 24 02 02; info@mecenat-cardiaque.org
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