Non-profit organisation, Surgeons for Little Lives, successfully raised over R1 million at its annual charity event, which was held on 11 October at the Johannesburg Country Club.
The charity also received the kind donation of a golf cart; one of the items on its Wishlist.
The fundraiser, which was attended by 305 guests, is a key event on Surgeons for Little Lives’ calendar; helping not only to generate much needed monies but also to raise awareness around the organisation’s work and to give thanks to the donors and volunteers involved with the charity.
Surgeons for Little Lives was established in 2015 by a group of paediatric surgeons and other volunteers with a focus on saving the lives of sick children at state hospitals within the Greater Gauteng area.
“The organisation is run by a group of paediatric surgeons and everyday people that are passionate about uplifting the lives of less fortunate children needing life-changing surgery. Their hope is to raise the level of care given to these sick children in state care. The organisation works in the paediatric surgery wards of state hospitals, in the greater-Gauteng area.”
The organisation is working to fund specific projects which will improve the care given to the children served by the Department of Paediatric Surgery in greater-Gauteng and its surrounding provinces.
The current, and most urgent, projects include:
- A new paediatric surgical outpatient clinic, incorporating a parental sleepover facility.
- A dedicated operating theatre for paediatric burns patients.
- An outside playground for recovering paediatric surgery patients.
- Providing recovering burns patients with Expression Art opportunities.
- All of these projects are based at CHBAH.
To date, the group has made an invaluable contribution to the quality of care received by these young patients. One of Surgeons for Little Lives’ greatest accomplishments thus far, has been the establishment of a Parental Sleepover Facility at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, which opened its doors in February this year. Since its opening, the unit has hosted more than 300 mothers, fathers, grandparents and caregivers, ensuring that patients whose parents live far distances from the hospital are able to derive comfort from their presence. The relief for both children and parents is significant.
The team at Surgeons for Little Lives announced at the event that they have raised enough funds to start building a Lactation Unit and Breast Milk Bank at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto.
This project was launched in 2017 and the team will be ready to break ground early next year.
The funds which were raised at this year’s function will be invested in existing projects, as well as being used to purchase items on the organisation’s Wishlist. Surgeons for Little Lives is, moreover, gearing to start its next project: the establishment of a dedicated Paediatric Emergency Department at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital.
This will be a major development for the hospital, which is the third largest in the world and serves a catchment area of 10 million people.
“The ambitious projects implemented by Surgeons for Little Lives have made a critical difference to patients and their families,” says Prof Jerome Loveland, Chairman of the Board of Surgeons for Little Lives and Head of Paediatric Surgery at the University of the Witwatersrand.
“We are both pleased and proud to be able to continue our work, thanks to the support of our generous donors and the hard work of our dedicated volunteers,” he concludes.
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