Saving Lives @Rahima Moosa Mother & Child Hospital

The beautiful Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken pieces of pottery are mended with powdered lacquer dusted with gold, silver or platinum speaks to the symbolism for me of life, especially where loss and tragedy rocks our very core. When Sam died our hearts were broken into a million pieces, but through the legacy of the Footprints 4 Sam Trust, which touches the lives of beneficiaries daily, our hearts are slowly being transformed from a messy and battered palp into a new art of being.

As a backdrop to this symbolism, the Neonatal ICU (NICU) renovation, has become a legacy project that continues to make our hearts whole and I am very pleased to report that our consultant and architectural team is making incredible progress with the NICU plans and designs.  The Professional Team consists of a group of the most incredibly gifted and committed consultants who have all dedicated themselves selflessly to this project so far.  (I have included dropbox links below which give some insight into the calibre of this team and their experience, as well as a presentation pack showing the project and the design work done so far).

Needless to say the budgets and feasibilities have been updated and we are now at a point where we can start approaching key donors and charitable foundations to dig deep.  (Please share this link with anyone you think may wish to join us in saving precious lives through this significant renovation project).  The quantum of the project is now sitting at around 5.5 million dollars, which means we have our fundraising work cut out for us.  That said, we know this is just the beginning as we continue to transform this hospital in the most profound way, so that the beauty within (i.e. the patients, health professionals and team members that serve them) is reflected by the wards themselves.

As we raise funds, we want to take this moment to thank everyone for all their incredible contributions.  Even though the process for fundraising will take time, the work of the Trust and the support of the hospital continues in a meaningful way.  Since we last reported, we delivered 180 Footprints 4 Sam Super Hero Food and Toiletry Buckets to the various government hospitals we support and the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital received a significant amount of these.  Each Food Bucket provides for about 168 meals, which means with the 140 Food Buckets donated we provided for over 23 000 meals.  Support initiatives were also run to continue supporting the health professionals emotionally, as they face the overwhelm of the care they give daily to their patients.

We hope you enjoy reviewing the hospital design plans so far.  I want to applaud the consultant team for all their hard work and dedication.   It has taken many months of hard work to get us to this point and as the brokenness of these hospital spaces are transformed on the pages of these designs and by the gold of the work of the Trust, supported by your donations, we know that the final result will be a true artwork to behold.  As I write this we are busy with Government and Management approvals and permissions.  

Thank you for supporting us, as we work hard to transform the scars to something beautiful and lifesaving!  As we raise sufficient funds we look forward to moving from concept and design into action and delivery.

Warmest wishes,

Melissa

Links:

• NICU Legacy Project - Marketing Pack
• Professional Project Consultant Pack - NICU Legacy Project

Dear Friends of Footprints 4 Sam

When we last spoke in March we were anticipating a third wave of Covid-19 in South Africa and as I write this project update we are now slap bang in the middle of another hard lockdown.  The much anticipated third wave of Covid-19 is really knocking South Africa, as this time we are being hard hit by the really infectious Delta variant.  Coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic, South Africa has also recently been rocked by massive unrest and looting across some of our major provinces.   As a result of all of this craziness when tasked with this report, one thinks - gosh where to start? 

Given the restrictions on hospital access due to the ongoing Covid pandemic, building and renovation work in the hospitals themselves has been very limited for the past 18 months. One of the other state hospitals we work with was also struck by a shocking fire recently, so this again delayed the renovations we had planned for them.  The one positive was that due to Covid we had not been able to do the earlier planned renovation at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital and this was rather a relief, since when they were hit by this devastating fire, at least we did not then see all our hard work destroyed.

At Rahima Moosa Mother and Child hospital, the focus of this report, the fundraising has largely happened outside of this platform through our own Footprints 4 Sam World Giving Sporting Series - a virtual multi-sport app driven challenge series.  This sporting series has been very successful, as well as a whole lot of fun.  We mentioned this Challenge Series earlier this year and we would love to encourage the sporty people amongst you to please share and join us using the link that I will include in this report.  The last 3 challenges have been aimed at raising funds for this key initiative, since the NICU renovation project is the biggest project that Footprints 4 Sam has ever embarked on and requires a long-term multi-pronged fundraising focus to make it a reality.   We also have many professionals getting us to proposal stage with a workable architectural and engineering plan, done completely at risk, which is incredibly generous of all these amazing and dedicated professionals given the size and scale of the work involved.

So where are we? Our architects are still hard at work with all suppliers to get a final design in place - approvals are taking much more time due to all the current challenges in the Country.  The hospital has also been challenged by water interruptions again and these immediate crises took precedence over all other projects with Footprints 4 Sam again stepping in to supply porter toilets together with one of our key donor suppliers.

We were also very proud to launch our Trachease programme at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital recently to help children who need a Tracheostomy to get home sooner instead of being exposed to months in hospital.  (- Months that sadly may then lead to the death of a child given the risk of being on a ventilator long-term and the added risk of hospital acquired infections).  This key programme involves training nurses and doctors via zoom.  Through this essential training we were able to ready them to do their first ever Tracheostomy in a child younger than 7 months old.  We are so pleased to say that the first recipient of this programme  - a baby girl, is thriving and is now safely at home with parents that are now fully trained on trache care for their precious child who now has a chance to thrive and live a life filled with hope and dignity.  (This programme has made us all smile for the past few months, which has been much needed!)

So although the actual renovation project is long-term, the day to day involvement in supporting this key hospital together with the amazing professionals that work there continues.   In July/August we are also going to do another large bucket drop, since at this point toiletries for mum and child and food are a priority.

Thank you for being such an important part of our Footprints 4 Sam family and cheering us on from the side-lines.  At this crazy time in our Country’s history, we desperately need the encouragement.

Trusting you are all safe and well, wherever you are in the world!

Warmest wishes,

Melissa (Sam's Mum)

Links:

• Join the Footprints 4 Sam World Giving Series - Challenge #3
• Short Video Clip - The Footprints 4 Sam World Giving Series #3
• Doctors 4 Sam, see what the doctors have to say about our impact