Saving Lives @Rahima Moosa Mother & Child Hospital

Walking in the shops this weekend I was stunned to see that Christmas decorations and cards were already on the shelves – where has this year gone?  All of South Africa swept up by the Rugby World Cup spirit and the win of our amazing Springboks has seen the last few weeks fly by filled with hope, nerves on edge and an amazing community of spirit.

I held on to this hope as my heart also plunged thinking how hard this time of year is for so many of our beneficiaries.   Having walked the chronic journey with their ailing children for the past year (and often so many years before this one) many parents and caregivers are simply exhausted as December looms.  This November and the thought of Christmas or the end of year is something many of them face with dread.  Dread that stems from the fact that they have no more emotional energy let alone additional funds to help their family celebrate.

This is where you all come in, as amazing donors you have helped us keep the hope and dignity alive for so many beneficiaries and health professionals this year, ensuring that we can keep the momentum of the “Bokke’s spirit” rolling on into Christmas and beyond.  During the year, because of your generosity, we will be able to do another Footprints 4 Sam Superhero Food and Toiletry bucket drop in December to make sure that doctors and health professionals have something to give families who are in need this Christmas time.  We also have #GivingTuesday coming up on 28 November 2023, so hopefully this key day of fundraising will also help us build up additional capacity to keep our bucket programme and efforts of renovation at Rahima Moosa Hospital well on track.

Since our last update we have celebrated Mandela Day at the hospital, where together with our amazing donors we painted two patient areas that were in desperate need of some tender loving care in the neonatal ward.  These two rooms have been on my heart for a long time, as any child being cared for in those spaces previously literally looked like they had been forgotten at the end of a dreary and forgotten corridor.  Now the spaces are bright and airy and have a sense of warmth again.  A huge shout out to Universal Paints and the team at Hamilton’s Brushware who did the hard work and heavy lifting in ensuring that these two patient rooms could again be safely used.

We also celebrated #HatsOn4CPC which is a worldwide day of remembrance for Children’s Palliative Care.  Across the Country, our Corporate Donors and the community we support in the paediatric hospitals came together – staff, parents and children wore silly hats as a reminder of the importance of Children’s Palliative Care and how important all the principles of palliative care really are.   – Children’s Palliative care is all about teamwork, compassion, kindness, dignity and hope as well as quality of life while living with a chronic or life limiting illness.  All of these beautiful values which continuously resonated as we watched the Springboks battle game after game – eventually bringing home the much-coveted Web Ellis Cup.  Their journey to their record fourth Web Ellis Cup and Rugby World Cup Victory was paved by their resilience and ability to overcome adversity just like so many of our incredible beneficiaries and the health professionals that care for them!

May the end of this year be a blessed one for you all and may you have the strength and resilience and above all hope to look back on the year and stand proud because of the difference you have made in so many children and parent’s lives!

Thank you never seems enough!

Each time I walk into Rahima Moosa Hospital my heart smiles.  There is still so much to do at the hospital given the crumbling infrastructure and lack of resources, but the heart of the hospital is beautiful and the hearts of the people that work there are even more wonderful.

Over the last few weeks we have been gearing up towards Mandela Day on the 18th of July and we have GlobalGiving's July Bonus Day also coming up on the 12^th of July.  So some exciting things to look forward to where donors are coming together to make a continued difference in this life-saving and life-giving hospital where the sacred spaces contained within the hospital walls, namely the wards and areas that we have renovated continue to make a meaningful impact.  Every time I pass the counselling room, the registrar rooms, the breastfeeding room and the Kangaroo Mother Care Ward and see them used daily by so many,  I am honoured to know that Footprints 4 Sam through the kindness and generosity of our donors continues to provide healing, hope and care to so many young lives.

Recently we have had tours with donors who are going to be joining us on Mandela Day to start painting and fixing up areas within the neonatal ward that we are still currently fundraising for, for the main renovation project.   However, ZAR 80 Million is a huge fundraising target and so in the meantime we are wanting to make certain areas usable and healing for babies that are currently surrounded by some rather sad and neglected spaces.

We have also had very promising meetings with the hospital board who are fully supportive of our main Beautiful Memories renovation project, with our architects and project team updating their documents to ensure that the flow and timing once the funds are raised are kept current.  

To date, our project team has already committed over ZAR 7.8 million in professional fees, on risk, to ensure the success of this key neonatal renovation project.

Each day we get closer to the dream of realising the complete renovation of the overall neonatal area, and so we ask that as you reflect on the life of Nelson Mandela and his birthday, that you might consider the gift that his life was to so many and help support us both in the July Bonus Day campaign and in the celebration of this incredible icon's birthday.

Thank you for all your support thus far.  We look forward to sharing Madiba's birthday month with you in a very special way, as we continue to bring dignity into these neglected paediatric spaces through your ongoing care and commitment, which leaves us in humble awe.  Your support also helps heal our hearts as July is also the month in which our son, Sam died – so this is truly a month for us where his legacy is even more sacred.

Thank you,

Melissa Platt

Sam's Mum, Co-founder and Trustee