Our history

Wherever we operate, our commitment has remained unchanged for nearly thirty years: to act, every day, to redress the injustice of place of birth and give every child access to quality care.

Key dates

30 years of commitment to access to healthcare for the most vulnerable

La Chaîne de l’Espoir was born of a meeting with a woman, Jacqueline Rougé, a biologist and active campaigner against unfortunate childhood. The issues she raised – a high bill foran operation on a Malian child, and an emergency operation for a Senegalese child – were to launch the formidable chain we form today. Because they were not born in the right place, children risk death for lack of means. We can’t ignore them, we can’t abandon them. It is to combat this injustice of birthplace that La Chaîne de l’Espoir has been mobilizing for nearly thirty years to meet the challenge of life.

1994

Creation of La Chaîne de l’Espoir

Created under the aegis of Médecins du Monde in 1988, La Chaîne de l’Espoir became an independent association in 1994, chaired by Pr Alain Deloche, an internationally renowned heart surgeon and co-founder of Médecins sans Frontières and Médecins du Monde. In December 2010, Dr Éric Cheysson took over from Pr Alain Deloche as President of La Chaîne de l’Espoir.

Gervais, the first child transferred to France

Gervais, a 10-year-old Senegalese boy, was suffering from a life-threatening heart condition. He was the first child to be transferred to France for life-saving surgery. Since then, thousands of children like him have benefited from an operation that has saved their lives and transformed their destinies.

1998

First open-heart surgery in Cambodia

At a time when cardiac surgery was still virtually non-existent in the country, La Chaîne de l’Espoir performed the first open-heart operations in Cambodia, before helping to build the Phnom Penh Cardiology Center within the Calmette Hospital. Since then, our association has helped many countries achieve this major medical breakthrough: Afghanistan (2006), Congo-Brazzaville (2013), Senegal (2017), Mali (2018), Burkina Faso (2021), Madagascar (2024).

2001

Opening of the Phnom Penh Heart Center in Cambodia

The Phnom Penh Cardiology Center (CCPP) at Calmette Hospital, built with the support of La Chaîne de l’Espoir, was inaugurated in 2001, establishing itself as a reference center in South-East Asia. With two operating theatres, a catheterization room, intensive care and hospitalization facilities meeting European standards of excellence, the CCPP has been operating on adults and children since 2001. To provide a place for children and their families to stay during hospitalization and convalescence, the Children’s Pavilion opened in 2003.

2006

Inauguration of the IMFE and first open-heart surgery in Afghanistan

Near the ruins of Kabul’s old hospital, La Chaîne de l’Espoir opened the Institut Médical Français pour la Mère et l’Enfant (IMFE) in 2006. Initially catering solely to children, the hospital expanded its scope to adults with the opening of the Mother-Child Unit in 2016. The only one of its kind in Afghanistan, the IMFE has become a benchmark for medical and surgical excellence that meets international standards. The Children’s Pavilion was created in 2008 to welcome children and their parents to Kabul, giving them access to the medical and surgical care provided at IMFE.

2009

First reconstructive surgery operations in West Africa

Children suffering from malformations, noma (a pathology that devours the face) or the after-effects of burns suffer severe handicaps and social exclusion. Faced with a lack of resources for treating children suffering from these conditions, La Chaîne de l’Espoir launched the “Les Sourires de l’Espoir” facial reconstructive surgery program in West Africa in 2009. Deployed in Togo, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mali and Benin, our action combines awareness-raising and prevention, surgical and medical care, and capacity-building for local medical staff.

2012

First orthopedic mission in Jordan for Syrian refugee children

Currently considered the world’s second largest refugee-hosting country per capita, Jordan is one of the countries most affected by the Syrian conflict. With many refugee families struggling to access healthcare, La Chaîne de l’Espoir organized its first orthopedic mission for Syrian refugee children in 2012. Since then, we have continued our actions in this country in favor of access to pediatric care for the most destitute children suffering from congenital cardiac and orthopedic malformations.

2015

Emergency medical aid after the Nepal earthquake

On April 25, 2015, Nepal was hit very hard by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, followed by several aftershocks and a second quake. The disaster took a heavy toll: over 8,800 dead, thousands injured, more than 600,000 homes destroyed and considerable damage in a country plagued by extreme poverty. Already present in Nepal as part of its education programs, La Chaîne de l’Espoir was quick to mobilize to provide emergency medical aid, as well as to reinforce its actions in favor of children’s schooling.

First echoes® tele-echography sessions

La Chaîne de l’Espoir has created echoes®, a portal for live, remote ultrasound consultations. The portal is aimed primarily at doctors in La Chaîne l’Espoir’s partner hospitals. Once a week, referral doctors in France and around the world take part in remote ultrasound consultations at requesting centers, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and West Asia. Local doctors can thus obtain a second opinion remotely and in real time, to confirm or invalidate diagnoses. Initially focused on the detection of pediatric cardiac pathologies, the program has since been extended to obstetric ultrasound for pregnancy monitoring, with echoesGYN-OBS®.

2016

Training a Senegalese medical team in Vietnam, a model of South-South cooperation

Prior to the opening of the Cuomo Cardiopediatric Center in Dakar in 2016, Senegalese doctors came to benefit from the medical expertise of teams at the Heart Institute in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The latter had been trained by Pr Alain Deloche, founder of La Chaîne de l’Espoir. Now autonomous, the teams at the Cuomo Cardiopediatric Center in Dakar are also passing on their knowledge: they have since welcomed a surgical team from the Le Luxembourg Mother and Child Hospital in Bamako, Mali. This approach, at the heart of La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s vision, contributes to strengthening South-South cooperation, the key to know-how and skills transfer for the future.

2017

Medical commissioning of the Cuomo Pediatric Cardiac Center and first open-heart surgery in Senegal

The first state-of-the-art cardiac surgery center specifically dedicated to children, the Cuomo Pediatric Cardiac Center (CCPC) in Dakar opened in 2017, with the support of La Chaîne de l’Espoir. The country’s first open-heart operations are performed there on this occasion. Until then, Senegalese children with heart conditions could not be treated in their own country. The CCPC trains doctors from all over West Africa, and also welcomes children from neighboring countries. The Pavillon des Enfants, opened the same year, provides accommodation for sick children and their families.

2018

First open-heart surgery at Mali’s new Festoc Center

The André Festoc Center at the Hôpital Mère-Enfant Le Luxembourg (HMEL), built and equipped by La Chaîne de l’Espoir, opens in Bamako. The first paediatric heart operation in the country was performed there. Today, the Centre André Festoc is recognized as one of the two paediatric cardiac reference centres in West Africa, alongside the Cuomo Centre in Dakar, Senegal.

2019

Resumption of the program to accompany hospitalized children in France

In 2019, La Chaîne de l’Espoir is launching a program to support hospitalized children in France. Often hospitalized for long periods and isolated from their families (mainly due to geographical distance or family problems), these children are visited several times a week by volunteers known as “parrains ou marraines soleil”. The program offers individualized support, enabling children to break away from loneliness and better cope with illness during the often long and trying periods of hospitalization. The program is currently deployed in some twenty healthcare establishments in France.

2020

Emergency aid for victims of Beirut explosions

On August 4, 2020, the port of Beirut and part of the city were blown up by two explosions, killing over 235 people and injuring thousands more. In the days following the disaster, anaesthetics, medicines, equipment and consumables were sent to help treat the injured. At the same time, as the hospitals were saturated, La Chaîne de l’Espoir set up a mechanism to identify and refer vulnerable patients, and finance their surgical operations.

2021

First open-heart surgery in Burkina Faso

Until 2019, there was no cardiac surgery department in Burkina Faso. Since then, La Chaîne de l’Espoir has been supporting the development of cardiac surgery at the Tengandogo University Hospital in Ouagadoudou, the capital of Burkina Faso. The association provides logistical, technical, medical and surgical support to the local team, enabling them to operate autonomously on children suffering from heart disease. This support will enable the first closed-heart operations to be carried out in 2019, with companion open-heart operations in 2021. Since then, doctors at Tengandogo University Hospital have carried out their first fully autonomous open-heart operations in 2022.

2022

Mobilizing the Ukrainian population

From the very first days of the conflict in Ukraine, La Chaîne de l’Espoir mobilized to send trauma kits, consumables (gloves, bandages, etc.) and medicines for emergency surgery and treatment of the wounded. It then sends emergency ultrasound scanners, resuscitation equipment, respirators, as well as diagnostic, perfusion, neurosurgical and orthopedic equipment to hospitals throughout the country. This equipment is crucial to enable doctors to treat the sick and injured. Through a partnership with the NGO Mehad (formerly UOSSM-Fr), La Chaîne de l’Espoir is also training medical personnel from all over the country in war medicine.

2024

First open-heart surgery in Madagascar

Since 2018, La Chaîne de l’Espoir has been working in Madagascar to develop pediatric heart surgery, which until now has been non-existent. In May 2024, the island will experience a turning point in its medical history, with the first open-heart operations. This medical breakthrough was made possible thanks to a partnership between the CENHOSOA hospital, the Felix Guyon University Hospital on Reunion Island, the Madagascan authorities and La Chaîne de l’Espoir. With the support of La Chaîne de l’Espoir, a pediatric surgery unit has been built and equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, and the hospital’s medical staff have benefited from appropriate training.