Now Maja has decided to help children and has appeared on the packaging of a limited edition of cocoa wafers coated in delicious milk chocolate. The proceeds from their sale support the construction of artificial hearts for children—life-saving devices for the youngest patients.
What connects the charming Maja with Żabka? Guided by the belief that the youngest and those most in need should receive special care and attention, the Żabka Polska chain has repeatedly become involved in initiatives serving children. It has now joined the efforts of the Prof. Zbigniew Religa Foundation for the Development of Cardiac Surgery to raise funds for work on the project to build Poland’s first family of artificial hearts for children. To support the Foundation, under the slogan “buy something delicious, do something good,” Żabka and Freshmarket stores will sell wafers featuring the image of the friendly bee Maja.
There are still no artificial hearts for the youngest patients in Poland, so, based on the artificial heart developed for adults, the Foundation is working on an entire system adapted to the needs of children in different age groups. Such devices will save the health and lives of young patients, effectively replacing an inefficient heart and allowing it to recover or helping the patient wait for a transplant. The waiting period for a transplant is longest for children because there is a shortage of donors in this age group. The idea of creating an entire family of devices supporting an inefficient heart for patients of every age, with various cardiac conditions, guided the work of the Foundation’s founder and Patron, Prof. Zbigniew Religa. In his honor, the family of artificial hearts for the youngest patients is called ReligaHeart PED.