By Jo Giles | Head Angel
Can you believe we’re already in the first month of spring here in South Africa? The blossoms are beginning to appear, the days are getting warmer and there’s a lovely sense of new beginnings in the air!
In our last update on our Compassionate Palliative Care in State Hospitals Project, we focused on the new spaces we’ve created at Rahima Moosa Mother & Child Hospital, spaces designed to bring greater comfort, dignity and support to mothers, babies and their families in the hardest of times. But as this project continues to grow, so does our integrated approach to what compassionate care really means.
It isn't only about improving the environment around a family. It is also about strengthening the people providing the care, giving healthcare professionals the knowledge, confidence and support they need, while helping families feel less alone along the way.
That’s why our work goes beyond infrastructure and into education, training and advocacy.
Our Trachease Programme, part of Footprints 4 Sam’s Support and Education initiative, provides practical training to parents, caregivers and healthcare professionals caring for children with tracheostomies.
Recently, two wonderful nurses, Anusha Cele and Ayanda Zondi, from General Justice Gizenga Mpanza Regional Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, travelled to Cape Town to attend a Basic Tracheostomy and Ventilation Workshop at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital.
Footprints 4 Sam was proud to sponsor their participation, and, of course, there had to be a little Footprints 4 Sam welcome when they arrived! Our Super Sam Hero Bus Supervising Driver, Humbie, met them at the airport and got them safely to their workshop.
Melissa and Fred, Sam’s parents also speak to GEMP 3 and fifth-year medical students at Wits University about the Samuel Generation of Healthcare, a vision for bringing greater humanity into medicine. Drawing on Sam’s journey, they talk to students about empathy, mutual respect, holistic care and genuine heart-to-heart communication. Hearing from a Dad is also crucial learning for these young doctors.
Our hope is that these future doctors will remember that a patient is never just a diagnosis or a bed number. There is a child, a parent, a family and a story behind every patient, and caring for one means caring for all of them.
Each year, Melissa also has the opportunity to share Sam’s story with new interns, registrars and medical officers at Rahima Moosa Mother & Child Hospital and other academic hospitals across the country. Her talk focuses on something that can sometimes get lost in the clinical world: the person behind the patient.
She speaks about treating every child and family with dignity,kindness and respect and reminds healthcare professionals that compassion needs to exist on both sides of the stethoscope. She also highlights the importance of self-care. Those who spend their lives caring for others also need support and compassion for themselves, because when we care for the people doing the caring, everyone benefits.
With your ongoing support we are able to equip healthcare professionals, support families and inspire the next generation of doctors, helping us leave footprints of change in every life we touch, and creating a lasting legacy from Sam’s story.
Thank you for helping us move beyond creating better spaces to creating better care!
Until next time,
Jo and the Footprints 4 Sam Team
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