The Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital Oncology Ward got a much-needed upgrade thanks to generous donors from the Citadel Philanthropy Foundation.
Cape Town, South Africa (04 February 2020) – Citadel is a wealth management company that has a division dedicated to funding charity work. Through their philanthropy programmes, they make sustainable differences in the lives of South Africans.
They do this through the Citadel Philanthropy Foundation (CPF), and the Citadel Talmar Impact Foundation. The CPF is a donor-advised fund which matches donors with sustainable projects that have a considerable impact.
There are many different ways in which donors can help and one of the most recent, was towards upgrading the Oncology Ward at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. Working together with the Ronan Keating Foundation, CPF played a significant role in the much-needed upgrades.
“Cancer is no respecter of persons. So it really makes no difference where you come from, how resourced you are. None of those things makes a difference. On a child’s care, it requires a team of people with specialised skills” – Dr Marc Hendricks, Paediatric Oncologist, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital.
The hospital needed specialised radiology facilities, nuclear medical facilities, specialised surgeons and specialised radiotherapy. Through the CPF, these things were provided and now children from all walks of life have the very best chance of surviving their cancer diagnosis.
Ronan Keating visited the hospital and met some of the children receiving care from his foundation’s contributions.
“People need to understand that all children access the same care irrespective of where they came from or how much money they have.” – Dr Marc Hendricks, Paediatric Oncologist, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital.
One notable client of Citadel is non-other than Siya Kolisi, South Africa’s World Cup-winning captain. He alongside Jean de Villiers, the head of Philanthropy at Citadel, visited a local school to instil the importance of education and how sport can lift you up from your circumstances.
“I’m a sportsman from Port Elizabeth in the township of Zwide. Life is very tough in the township and the pinnacle of my career is becoming the first black Springboks captain.”
When asked what Siya thought he would end up being one day, the answer was not to be a world cup winning captain.
“Taxi driver, that’s what we believed that’s all we could achieve. Rugby kind of helped me escape that route and believe that could be whatever I wanted to.”
Through the Citadel Philanthropy Foundation (CPF), clients are able to select how their donations are managed.
“I always sit and wish that somebody had done that for us in my community and I think it’s highly important to give back to education because that is longterm helping the country.” – Siya Kolisi.
As part of the #SAINC nation-building initiative, Citadel is joining a network of purpose-driven brands to share stories of positive progress in South Africa. These stories are being featured across social media in small snippets, just like the one below, but you will also be able to watch the full-length features live on television. You will find the airing times below:
08 February 2020 – SABC2 – 14:30
25 February 2020 – Business Day TV – 16:00
27 February 2020 – Business Day TV – 12:00
Watch a snippet of the story below:
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