Dubai’s Health Authority (DHA) is the local government entity established with the aim to provide an accessible, effective and integrated healthcare system, promote public health and improve the quality of life within the Emirate. The DHA’s mission is to transform Dubai into a leading healthcare destination by fostering innovative and integrated care models and by enhancing community engagement.

Nomination Subcategory: Corporate Social Responsibility Program of the Year – in the Middle East and Africa.

Nabadat Initiative:

According to the WHO, cardiovascular diseases are the number 1 cause of death globally. As part of its establishment mandate & strategic plan, DHA launched various strategic projects for enhancing the provision of healthcare and raising public awareness about the various CVDs. Nevertheless, realizing the importance of combatting CVDs and reducing the fatality rates caused by these diseases on a wider scale, DHA launched “Nabadat” CSR Initiative.

Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) are a common type of birth defects. Each year, more than a million babies worldwide are born with CHD. More than 100,000 of them do not live to see their first birthday and thousands more die before they reach adulthood. Realizing that CHDs are a major cause of children’s death worldwide, DHA launched “Nabadat” (i.e. heartbeats in Arabic) as a CSR project executed in collaboration with the Mohammed bin Rashid Charity & Humanitarian Establishment (MBRCHE) with a dedicated team travelling across the globe to provide free medical assistance, consultation, life-saving surgeries and post-surgical care to impoverished children with (CHDs). “Nabadat” team consists of DHA’s highly trained cardiac surgeons, cardiac anesthetists, intensivists, nurses and technicians.

When it comes to charitable acts pertaining to healthcare, many organizations opt for monetary contributions to NGOs operating within countries in need. DHA followed an innovative approach, where it sends its highly trained calibers lead by head of cardiac surgery department to these countries to evaluate the urgency of the cases and conduct operations themselves. In addition to transferring the technical expertise and know-how pertaining to the complex operations to local surgeons in the countries visited as to enable them to perform these operations in the future, which is a creative concept to support the self-sufficiency and sustainability of the initiative. Dubai Government did not only cover 100 % of the costs of operations, knowledge sharing, travel expenses of the Nabadat Teams to the target countries, but it also covered after-care of the patients to ensure ideal recovery results. Until date, 8.5 million Dollars were spent to execute “Nabadat” Initiative.

Countries chosen for “Nabadat” are determined on the basis of economic and health conditions. For example, India witnesses 200,000 CHD cases annually, where only 30-40 thousand cases are treated while the remaining cases are not addressed on time or not at all. Similar conditions are present in the rest of the countries visited by “Nabadat”.

To ensure sustainability of the initiative and its impact, “Nabadat” team ensures Physicians and paramedics from hosting countries are present during consultations and procedures to ensure knowledge transfer. During previous visits, 70 physicians and paramedics benefited from knowledge sharing in the hosting countries.

Nabadat team executed 37 treatment campaigns, operating 1540 children worldwide and providing free consultative & diagnostic service to 5000 children. They performed free of cost complex surgical operations for the treatment of congenital malformations in children and diseases of valves and heart arteries in India, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Egypt, Sudan, Tajikistan and the UAE. During 2018 alone, 25 cases were treated in Dubai, 134 in India and 100 children in Egypt. Total amount spent for Nabadat exceeds 8.5 Million US Dollars. Target for 2018 was to conduct maximum number of screening to end up operating at least 100 cases marking the “Late Sheikh Zayed 100 years’ celebration”, eventually 259 operations were completed successfully.