NGO Eases The Traumas Of Little Lives At Joburg Hospitals

A group of paediatric surgeons do more than fix children medically – their nonprofit also raises funds to make kids' stays in hospital less traumatic.
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A group of paediatric surgeons has found a way to help children from disadvantaged homes get the best medical care possible.

"Our organisation has been enormously successful," said the nonprofit's chair, Professor Jerome Loveland.

The NGO raises funds to contribute towards building facilities and making children's hospital stays more comfortable.

"Surgeons for Little Lives" launched officially in 2015, and these days it works with the new paediatric surgery ward at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital.

This facility was completed in November 2017 and opened that same month, representing a first for the hospital. It caters for children from infancy up to 10 years old.

The Baragwanath facility has accommodation that enables parents to live at the hospital for the duration of their child's stay.

The NGO has focused most of its work at the Chris Hani Baragwanath and Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospitals, because of the need these two hospitals have when it comes to childcare.

"Baragwanath was built pre-1994 and the devastating infrustructure was one of the reasons we decided to work with them," Loveland told HuffPost.

The organisation is now focused on its next big project: building a lactation unit and breastmilk bank, and a dedicated paediatric burns theatre and recovery room for children at Chris Hani Baragwanath.