Help Heal Children in Hospital - Laughter Heroes

Thank you for taking the time to make a difference and bring laughter to children who are in hospital because of life threatening illnesses. I thought I should take a moment to share with you some feedback on the past year and the laughter our little dreamers where able to experience thanks to our wonderful team of Jabulani’s who visited 37 620 children who were entertained in hospital.

In this newsletter edition I wanted to introduce you to some of the Jabulani’s team who last year alone brought 3213,5 hours of fun for our dreamers in hospital, we could have not done this without the 16 Jabulani’s. Please take a moment to meet Sparkles Jabulani and Jumpy Jabulani.

Sparkles Jabulani

“I am Sparkles Jabulani from the Sparkling City, Kimberley! I am married to Manie, have two children and four beautiful and talented grand-. I love music, reading, the outdoors and coffee chats with lots of laughs! I am very proud to be a part of the team for the last four years. I usually can’t wait for my weekly shift and to put smiles on the adorable kids and parents faces, including the hospital staff who are very helpful too. In Kimberley we are one big family. To be a Jabulani is the most rewarding job in the world!”

 Jumpy Jabulani

“I’m from the Bloemfontein branch and have been a Jabulani for 5 years. I’m a fun person and enjoy spending time with my friends and family. I love kids, so it was an easy decision to become a Jabulani. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world! It’s priceless and magical all at the same time. It’s amazing what a few magic tricks and balloons can do to brighten up a child’s day. I spend most of my time in the paediatric ward. Seeing a child laughing or smiling is very rewarding and it really makes my time at the hospitals worthwhile. My favourite thing to do with the children and their parents in hospital is to sing. It helps everyone relax and have fun. I also love doing the activity books with the children and showing them how to do the puzzles and games. I realized that it was important for the children to receive mental stimulation too, and having someone to show them how to complete the mazes and dot-to-dot puzzles in the activity books makes them feel important. Being a Jabulani has been a challenging and heart-warming experience.”

Thank you for your donation, we could have not brought all these smiles and laughter without your support.

Children who a severely ill are often left feeling discouraged, frightened, emotionally drained, stressed and depressed. In some cases, even uninspired to continue living when suffering from a terminal illness in hospital. 

When looking at children admitted into hospital, being in hospital for long periods of time prohibits children from having “normal” experiences that contribute to their social and emotional development. There is currently one government employed doctor for every 2,457 people not covered by medical aid. In private care, one medical aid-registered doctor sees between 429 and 571 people.Given the strain on the South African healthcare system, life-threatened children in hospital are left feeling anxious, depressed and hopeless. Our Jabulani Kingdom therapeutic clowns ensure that more than 40,000 children in hospital receive the physical and emotional healing to support their treatment.

Being in and out of hospital can be a taxing experience as children are often surrounded by other sick children and have limited access to society at large. Moreover, most hospitalized children cannot be anywhere at any time. Because there are many mobility limitations placed on a hospitalized child, society at large does not have the necessary facilities to always include vulnerable, sick and disabled children. Given that most hospitalized children are also economically disadvantaged the need to include and facilitate activities for these children is high. When looking at the material state of government hospitals across South Africa it is clear that there is a need for more funds. The indirect consequence of the poor conditions in government hospitals is that hospitalized children are forced to spend long periods of time in conditions that are not always child friendly.

When a child becomes ill there is a significant amount of financial strain placed on children and their families as medical costs are often ongoing and expensive. Furthermore, access to adequate and all-encompassing healthcare is not a guarantee, particularly in the more rural areas of South Africa.  This means that in most cases hospitalized children have limited access to basic necessities and opportunities to enrich themselves. Severely ill as well as sick children loose access to many privileges that healthy children have, simply because of the financial strain placed on the caregivers of these children. Many of the government run hospital across South Africa are under enormous financial and material strain meaning that children’s care has also become strained. Many large government hospitals do not have the time or resources to create an all-encompassing health care.

Objectives of Therapeutic Clowning through Jabulani Kingdom

2.1 We aim to achieve the below through Jabulani Kingdom