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75 DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION but also pass on the knowledge they acquire in Egypt to fellow doctors. Most recently, in July 2017, the EAPD joined hands with the MYF to organize and sponsor a visit to Ethiopia by a medical team of 27, including surgeons, doctors and nurses from the foundation. Headed by Sir Yacoub himself, they performed, for free, 45 delicate heart operations on a number of underprivileged Ethiopian citizens at the Black Lion hospital. This is the fourth visit of its kind since the EAPD-MYF partnership was launched. In 2016, through this partnership, an Egyptian wing at the Cardiac Centre of the Ethiopian hospital was established and equipped with an advanced cardiac catheter and other medical devices. Another example of a successful initiative on which EAPD and MYF have collaborated is the holding of the International Conference on Rheumatic Heart Disease, Cairo, in January 2017. Organized in partnership with the Pan African Society for Cardiology, its goal was to explore the various dimensions of the disease. African participa- tion was crucial, given the high prevalence of the disease on the continent and the little research conducted on it in The West. Like avoidable blindness, it is preventable and curable but unnecessarily harms and kills people across Africa. Over one million children are estimated to suffer from the disease in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. The EAPD enabled 100 young African cardiologists, who showed great potential, to participate in this important learning event by covering all travel and accommodation expenses. Their presence and interventions was a source of pride to the EAPD, given their talent, hope and eagerness to learn. Another success story is the EAPD’s partnership with the Children’s Cancer Hospital Egypt (57357), the only specialised children’s cancer hospital in the Middle East and Africa and the largest of its kind in the world. Here, a capacity building programme is being implemented, aiming at training 600 African medical practitioners and provid- ing expertise and equipment to hospitals in African cities. The hospital is currently offering expertise to The Sudan in the establishment of the Sudanese Children’s Cancer Hospital (7979). It is also taking charge of the free treat- ment of a number of African children suffering from cancer, for instance a child of four who was flown to the hospital with severe leukaemia and minimal chances of survival. The child, Manzy, received expert medical care and an incred- ible amount of love, and is now able to play like any other child. This is just one story of how these partnerships are able to change lives. One could recount a hundred more. These examples prove that in the Global South, we can, and do, help one another to achieve sustainable development through the sharing of knowledge and resources. While Sir Magdy Yacoub, Ambassador Dr. Hazem Fahmy, Ambassador Abu Bakr Hefny and a team of Egyptian and Ethiopian doctors at the inauguration of the Egyptian wing at the Cardiac Centre in the Black Lion Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Image: MYF