Prof A. Kalangos visited Tirana in 2013, where he had some contacts with the President of Albania with Mr Bujar Nishan, and the Minister of health to set up a sustainable pediatric heart surgery program in Albania. Many pediatric cases from Albania have been operated on in Athens through the foundation. A cardiac surgeon from Albania was partially trained in Geneva.

In 2003, the social security of Algeria (Caisse Nationale de l'Assurance Sociale) signed an agreement with the University of Geneva for the referral of children with complex congenital heart malformations in the clinic for cardiovascular surgery of Prof A. Kalangos, in Geneva.

Based on this agreement, we started organizing surgical missions in the Children's Hospital of Bou Ismail in Algiers.

Two pediatric cardiologists were trained in Geneva

In 2012, the foundation began collaborating with Professor Andreas Petropoulos, head of pediatric cardiology at Merkezi Klinika Hospital in Baku. The foundation's financial support contributed to the surgical treatment  of many complex cases abroad in Kiev, Istanbul, and Athens. An Azeri surgeon was trained at the department of Prof A Kalangos in Geneva.

The collaboration began in 2018 with the pediatric cardiac surgery department at the Republican Center of Minsk under the direction of Dr. Konstantin Drozdovski. Many surgical missions have been organized to train the local staff for complex pediatric heart surgery techniques.

In 2013, Prof A Kalangos was invited by the Foundation of the first lady "Chantal Biya" and visited the hospital run by this foundation in order to set up a center of pediatric cardiac surgery in Yaoundé. A gala dinner was organized in Geneva for fundraising, which permitted us to train a cardiac surgeon from Cameroon in Geneva.

Between 2016 and 2019, Prof A Kalangos and his team members provided training facilities during surgical missions to the local staff of the department of cardiac surgery at the state hospital of Yinchuan province in China. Mr Gennadi Lysak promoted this department. Prof A Kalangos was nominated “visiting professor” by the Ningxia Medical University in Yinchuan. 

The collaboration with Cyprus began in 2010 at Makarios Children's Hospital in Nicosia under the leadership of the Ministers of Health "Mr. Christos Patsalides and then succeeded by Mr. Stavros Mallas" where Prof A Kalangos and his team from Geneva started performing the first cases of pediatric heart surgery in Cyprus. Based on the agreement signed between the Social security of Cyprus and the University Hospital of Geneva, many complex cases referred from Cyprus have been operated in Geneva until the end of 2015. One cardiologist was trained for adult congenital cardiac diseases in Geneva.

In 2005, Kalangos Foundation started a collaboration with the clinic of cardiovascular surgery at Al Shams University Hospital in Cairo and helped them to reinforce their surgical experience with mitral and tricuspid valve repair in children. A cardiac surgeon for the University Hospital of Alexandria was trained in Geneva.

In 1997, Dr. Oltamar, the president of "Centrale Sanitaire Suisse, " asked Prof A. Kalangos to organize a mission to screen the young Eritrean population for heart diseases. A few months later, Prof A. Kalangos and his team, sent all the necessary equipment to "Halibet Hospital" in Asmara, where they performed the first open-heart surgeries in the country in 1998. The equipment and material used in these surgeries were sponsored by the "Center of Orthodox Church" in Geneva. When Prof A. Kalangos and his team returned from this mission, they founded the Humanitarian Association "Coeurs pour Tous" in Geneva. The first financial support was donated by the State Councilor of Geneva, "Mr Guy Olivier Segond ."Unfortunately, the military conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia interrupted the continuity of these missions. The first pediatric cardiologist in the country has been trained at the University Hospital of Geneva, where she spent 12 months thanks to the foundation's scholarship.

In 1998, The President of Georgia, "Mr. Eduard Shevardnadze" invited Prof A. Kalangos to explore the possibilities of developing pediatric heart surgery in Tbilisi. After his first visit to Tbilisi, he decided to improve the existing state hospital "Eristavi" infrastructure. Thanks to the investment of Mr. David Khazaradze and Mr. Badri Japaridze, the department of cardiovascular surgery of Eristavi Hospital has been restructured according to the modern conditions allowing Prof A. Kalangos and his team to operate on many children suffering from heart diseases during their regular humanitarian missions organized every 3-4 months on a yearly basis. Two cardiac surgeons, the local paramedical staff, the perfusionist, the anesthetist, and the pediatric cardiologist were trained either locally or in Geneva.

Between 2013 and 2019, Professor A Kalangos was the director of pediatric heart surgery at Mitera Hospital in Athens. Since 2019, he is the director of the "Center for Congenital tracheal and heart diseases" at Iaso Children's Hospital. In 2015, he created the humanitarian organization "Coeurs pour Tous Hellas," which has contributed to the surgical care facilities of 130 children suffering from congenital and tracheal heart diseases up to now. For further information you can visit the website 

 https://www.coeurspourtoushellas.gr

The process of creation of the local representative of Kalangos Foundation in Greece is underway. Two cardiac surgeons accomplished their fellowship in Geneva and based on the agreement with Aghia Sophia Children's Hospital Professor A Kalangos operated on many complex cases in this hospital in collaboration with the local team. 

In 2006, we collaborated with Dr. K.M. Cherian, a famous pioneering cardiac surgeon, and the president of "Frontier lifeline» in Chennai. Many surgical missions were organized in Chennai, Bangalore (with Dr D Shetty), Kerala (Hardik Jariwala Foundation), and Hyderabad to reinforce these health institutions' humanitarian programs, especially in pediatric cardiac surgery. A cardiac surgeon from Chennai has been trained in Geneva.

In 2001, the ambassador of Mauritius at the United Nations office in Geneva His Excellency Jaynarain Meetoo and Mr Alain Fong (originally from Mauritius), who was chief nursing staff administrator at the University Hospital of Geneva, organized our first official visit in Mauritius. During this visit, Prof A. Kalangos met Mr. Ashok Jugnauth(minister of health), the prime minister, and the President of Mauritius. Together they decided to reinforce the activities of the existing "Cardiac Centre in Pamplemousses". An agreement was signed between the Minister of Health of Mauritius and the University Hospital of Geneva thanks to the personal involvement of Mr. Bernard Gruson, general director of the University Hospital of Geneva, in this project. Based on this agreement, many humanitarian missions have been conducted by Prof A. Kalangos in collaboration with the local counterpart Dr. Sunil Gunness over ten years. Many physicians from Mauritius have been trained in Geneva. A lot of equipment and material have been donated to the "Cardiac Center" with the aim to improve the infrastructure.

Thanks to the commitment of our trained Mauritian team members, many screening missions for heart diseases have been organized to Comoros Islands, Rodrigue, Seychelles Islands, Bostwana, and Madagascar. Many children from these islands have been referred to the "Cardiac Center" for the surgical treatment of their heart diseases.

Another memorandum of understanding was signed between the University of Mauritius and the University Hospital of Geneva, which permitted to collaborate with Professor D Jhurry (former chancellor of the University of Mauritius and head of the chemistry department) in the field of biodegradable materials.

In 2005 the University of Mauritius conferred upon Prof A. Kalangos the title of Honorary Doctor of Sciences".

A pediatric cardiologist and a cardiac surgeon from Madagascar have been trained at the University Hospital of Geneva thanks to the scholarships of Kalangos Foundation.

Many children from Kyrgyzstan suffering from congenital heart diseases were operated abroad through the foundation links. In 2015 Professor A Kalangos visited the Ministry of Health and some health institutions where pediatric and adult cardiac surgery in Bishkek is operational. Dr. Mustafa Unal, a Turkish cardiac surgeon referred by  “Kalangos Foundation”, started working at Bicard Center of Cardiology and Cardiac surgery in 2016.

In 2000, our foundation started a collaboration with the "Hôpital du Nord" located in the city of Zgharta with the support of the minister of health of Lebanon, Mr Suleiman Frangieh. The general director of this hospital Dr Cesar Bassim signed an agreement with the University Hospital of Geneva, which allowed us to organize every 3 months pediatric surgical missions. A cardiovascular surgeon was trained in Geneva, and the remaining part of the local team members were trained

The collaboration began in 2011 with Professor Aureliu Batrinac (adult cardiac surgery) and Dr Liviu Maniuc (pediatric heart surgery). Since this date, we have organized surgical missions for complex adult and pediatric heart surgery cases on a regular basis. A cardiac surgeon from Moldova spent 2 years in the department of cardiovascular surgery of Professor A Kalangos in Geneva for the first step of his training in cardiac surgery. The metropolitan of Chisinau and All Moldova, the bishop Vladimir conferred upon Prof A Kalangos the medal of the Moldovan Church for his humanitarian actions in favor of Moldovan patients. 

In 2001, Prof A. Lahlaidi, director of the department of anatomy of the Faculty of Medicine of Rabat, who graduated from the faculty of medicine of Geneva, invited Prof A Kalangos to Morocco to introduce him to the chiefs of cardiac surgery of the University Hospital of Rabat(Prof M. Benomar) and Casablanca(Prof. A. Mehadji). Since 2002, Prof A. Kalangos and his team organized two missions every year in each of these institutions and promoted pediatric heart surgery by training surgeons and providing specific material dedicated to the correction of congenital heart malformations. The missions in Casablanca were financially covered by the "Swiss Cooperation" , from the ministry of foreign affairs. One surgeon from Rabat and one pediatric cardiologist from Casablanca were trained in Geneva through the foundation's scholarships.

In 1999, the Prime minister "Mr. P. Mocumbo" who was a physician graduated from the medical faculty of Lausanne, invited Prof A. Kalangos to Maputo to look for the possibilities to set up a program of cardiac surgery in Mozambique in collaboration with the French Humanitarian Association "La Chaine de l'Espoir". During this first visit to Maputo, the team visited many hospitals with a local reference person Dr. Beatrice Ferreira, a pediatric cardiologist from Mozambique trained in Paris at the clinic for pediatric cardiology of Professor Daniel Sidi (Hôpital Necker). The old colonial Portuguese hospital was chosen to be converted into a Heart Institute after meeting the President of Mozambique Chissano. Thanks to the involvement and incredible job realized by the french association of architects, in 2000 Prof A. Kalangos was able to organize the first surgical mission in the "Instituto di Coraçao" where the first cases of open-heart surgery of Mozambique have been performed by him and his team members from the University Hospital of Geneva. The following missions have been alternated between the 4 humanitarian institutions, Coeurs pour tous, Geneva, The chain of Hope (Prof Magdi Yacoub) London, La Chaine de l'espoir(Prof Daniel Sidi) Paris, and Prof Manual Antunes from Coimbra, Portugal for many years. In 2001, the anesthetist of Heart Institute in Maputo was trained in Geneva thanks to the scholarship of our Foundation.

n 2014, Prof A. Kalangos and his team from Geneva visited the University Hospital of Lagos and operated on many pediatric children suffering from congenital heart diseases in collaboration with the Indian team of Dr. Sanjay Cherian from Chennai.

The collaboration began in 2005 with the clinic for pediatric heart surgery in Poznan under the direction of Professor Michal Wojtalik. Many surgical missions have been organized for children suffering from mitral or tricuspid valve diseases. A cardiac surgeon from Poznan's center has accomplished some part of his training in cardiac surgery with a more specific commitment on basic research projects in the department of cardiovascular surgery of Prof A Kalangos in Geneva.

The collaboration began in 2003 and was initiated by Professor Dusan Velimirovic from the cardiac surgery department of the Clinical Center of Belgrade. During his first visit to Belgrade, Professor A Kalangos was introduced to the HRH Prince Alexandre of Serbia  and HRH Princess Katherine of Serbia. Thanks to the close collaboration of the Royal Couple, an adult congenital heart diseases center became functional under the direction of Professor Dimitra Kalimanovska. Another collaboration was initiated with the departments of pediatric cardiology (Professor Ida Jovanovic) and pediatric cardiac surgery (Professor Ilic) at Tirsova Children’s Hospital. Some part of the infrastructure of the operating theaters was renovated by Mr. Alexandre Niklan, board member of the Kalangos Foundation. Four missions on a yearly basis were organized, during which many complex adult and pediatric cases were operated. Many equipments as a Berlin Heart assist device console, an ECMO machine, intraortic balloon pump and specific material for pediatric heart surgery were donated. An agreement between the Social Security of Serbia  and the University Hospital of Geneva has been signed allowing the complex cases to be referred to the clinic of Professor A Kalangos for their surgical treatment. In 2005, the nomination of Professor A Kalangos as visiting professor by the University of Belgrade reinforced the academic collaboration between the two institutions as well. Two cardiac surgeons and an intensivist were trained at the University Hospital of Geneva.

In 2006 we started collaborating with Dr. Othman Madjid in «Al- Basel Hospital "in Damascus and operating on some pediatric cases suffering from mitral and aortic valve diseases. A cardiac surgeon from Aleppo was trained in Geneva.

Between 2001 and 2015, Prof A Kalangos, director of the department of cardiovascular surgery at the University Hospital of Geneva, contributed to the training of 12 Turkish cardiac surgeons who accomplished some part of their fellowship in Geneva.

In 2015, the Kalangos Foundation was founded in Istanbul, where it continues to provide cardiac care facilities to the Turkish children in collaboration with the Koc University Hospital in Istanbul. For further details, you can visit the local website of "Kalangos vakfi":

 http://kalangosvakfi.org/

In 2013, Prof A Kalangos visited for the first time the “Ukrainian Health Ministry, Heart Institute in Kyiv” under the direction of Professor Borys Todurov. Based on the agreement of collaboration signed in 2015, many pediatric and adult cases have been operated on at this Institute. Every two years, Kalangos foundation was co-organizing the international "Reconstructive Heart Surgery symposium” with the Heart Institute,  aimed to reinforce the continuing postgraduate education of Ukrainian surgeons and those from neighboring countries. 

The collaboration with the Department of Cardiac Surgery of the University Hospital of Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon) under the direction of Prof Nguyen Hoang Dinh began in 2010. Prof A Kalangos was organizing 2 surgical missions per year, and an agreement was signed between the University Hospital of Geneva and the Medical University of Ho Chi Minh. A gala dinner was organized in 2014 in Geneva in favor of this project, and the collected financial resources have been used to set up new types of equipment in the new building of the University Hospital of Ho Chi Minh.