| 17 April 2018, Beirut: On Friday the 13TH of April 2018, Heartbeat organized its annual gala dinner at The Seaside Arena of Beirut, a fundraising initiative to treat children with heart disease. | |
| One thousand guests attended this event, among whom the first lady of Lebanon H.E. Mrs Nadia Aoun, H.E. Mrs Leila Solh Hamade, H.E. Mrs Mona Hraoui, H.E. Mr Ghassan Hasbani, Mr Raymond Audi, Mrs Rose Choueiry, Mr Tony Salame, as well as other social and political figures of the Lebanese jet set. |
The gala dinner, hosted by Heartbeat ambassadors Maxime Chaya and Daniella Rahme, featured the best of this year’s concert “A Heartbeat Story”, an illustration of Heartbeat’s mission and hard work, a showcase of a real Heartbeat story. An auction on unique items was conducted by Mrs Nada Boulos El Assaad. The audience responded with excitement and great generosity. The evening ended with the traditional raffle on valuable presents.
Saturday and Sunday the 14th and 15th of April were dedicated to the full concert “A Heartbeat Story”; the story of a girl and a boy who fall in love, get married and bring to the world a beautiful baby girl, unfortunately born with a heart defect. The distraught parents had no choice but to turn to Heartbeat who released their burdens by hospitalizing the little girl and bringing the beat back to her tiny heart. Heartbeat was able to tell the story of an NGO’s ability to save lives through music, poetry & choreography.
More than 50 singers and musicians, professionals and amateurs, worked together selflessly for several months for the success of this event, among them Anthony Touma, with a special appearance of Valérie Abou Chacra. The choreography was handled by Lea Chahine. The stage directors were Kristian Abouanni and Manel Mallat from Cats Production, and Dr Ramzi Ashoush, president of Heartbeat, was the Music Director, arranger and show creator.
He stated: ‘This concert has been going for 13 years in a row, which is equivalent to more than 2,800 lives saved. Being able to cover the treatment cost of the babies born with a sick heart unleashes the artist inside each one of us as there is no stronger stimuli but remembering that every melody and every move can save a life.”
Heartbeat –La Chaine de L’Espoir is a Lebanese humanitarian association that was founded in 2005 by a group of Medical Doctors from Hotel-Dieu de France with the sole purpose of helping the children with heart disease who could not afford getting the proper treatments. Worldwide, 1% of children are born with heart malformation, which is equivalent to nearly 600 cases per year in Lebanon. If not treated, these diseases are the first cause of death before the age of 1 year. However, if detected on time and adequate treatment is given, the survival rate exceeds 95%.
Donation
Heartbeat-Bank Audi (Sofil Branch)
Account No. 325179 / IBAN: LB49 0056 0003 2517 9462 0020 0902