Cause Index

Andrea Slater

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY – The Hudson Initiative
The Hudson Initiative was founded on a real life hero named Hudson.

He was diagnosed with Congenital Heart Defect soon after his birth and this was considered lucky as 1 in 3 CHD babies leave the hospital completely undiagnosed. There are many types of heart defects and his was Truncus Arteriosus. One of the rarest and most difficult to treat. After several surgeries Hudson’s little heart gave in; but out of that loss came a chance to make other parents aware that CHDs are real and can happen to anybody regardless of race or creed.

One in 100 babies are born with this defect and twice as many babies die from CHDs as those from all forms of childhood cancer combined and yet, barely a few cents of government spend on heart related research projects goes towards CHDs in infants.

Knowledge is power and this motto runs parallel to the initiatives two primary and fundamental aims:

To raise awareness: Awareness that this could happen to anybody, and all that you need to do is ask your doctor for the pulse ox test, which is a simple test to determine if there is a problem with a newborns heart, so that the necessary lifesaving precautions can be taken by doctors and parents.

To raise funds: People with medical aid or money who find their child has a CHD can most likely easily afford the surgeries but there are 250 000 babies on a waiting list for surgery across Africa. CHDs have no definitive, known cause but there has got to be a reason they happen – therefore, funds raised will be used to fund research organisations and, ultimately, surgeries (in the long run) with the latter being distributed to local clinics and government hospitals.

ORGANISATIONAL OVERVIEW
The Hudson Initiative is a registered section…. or Non-Profit Organization

The Organisations goals/objectives are:
To raise awareness around Congenital Heart defects in infants and children
To equip people with enough information to know what to do
To offer support to families affected by CHDs
To raise funds to be donated towards research initiatives (The Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital)

Longer term Goals
To make the pulse ox test law by standardising it with antenatal checkups in all public hospitals and clinics
To begin raising enough money to fund surgeries that some parents find unaffordable
To effectively reduce the number of deaths caused by Congenital Heart disease

Target Beneficiaries
Infants
Mothers
Fathers
Clinics
Hospitals

Services offered.
Current services offered include support groups for Parent affected by CHD.

Funders/Donors
Currently The Hudson Initiative relies on donations from the public, through our media outreach endeavours to create awareness.

Click here to make a donation now