Increase Paediatric Palliative Care in KZN, SA

As another year starts we at Umduduzi – Hospice Care for Children are preparing for another big year. 2022 was a difficult year for the province that we work in due to the severe flooding that occurred. Many of our families’ homes were devastated during the flooding and if possible their lives became even harder.

2022 saw us providing care for nearly 300 new children and their families. This does not include all those children from previous years that we are still providing care too. Many of those little ones are no longer with us and as a team the immensity of that struck as all as we sat with our families around the Christmas lunch table.

We are unsure what 2023 holds for us but we know that we will be continuing the invaluable work that we are doing and that this is made possible by all those who donate to us through various formats. We do know that there are some exciting new additions to our work. We will be welcoming a neonatologist with palliative care experience into the team. She will be assisting pregnant mothers who have received devastating ante-natal diagnoses make difficult decisions and be there to counsel and support them. We will also be welcoming an additional social worker who will be assisting with the bereavement work. Both of these are crucial services that will only enhance the care we are providing those we work with.

As an organization, we will also be assisting our provincial Department of Health in developing more palliative care aware hospitals throughout the province. Champions have been identified in the various regions within the province and Umduduzi will be running the training with them. This will widen the knowledge of palliative care and help us provide more services to those in need.

Thank you to all for your continued support in 2022. We hope that 2023 will be a year full of love and kindness.

As discussed in our last report, our beloved province was decimated by floods. The clean-up is still going on and many of those who lost their homes are still living in community halls trying desperately to find permanent accommodation as well as re-accumulate all that they lost.

The process of getting Identity Documents is unfortunately slow and so many of our families have still not been able to access their social support grants. This has further impeded their ability to start over again.

One of these is a very brave mom, T.S. She has 2 children with life-limiting conditions, one of whom is wheelchair bound. During the floods she was fortunate to be at her sister’s house and therefore was able to save her 2 children. Her home was completely washed away. Both of the children require regularly hospital visits and without support T.S. is unable to get them there. Unfortunately, the public transport system in South Africa is not wheelchair friendly and the local “taxis” charge per seat. Therefore, if T.S. has to take her children to hospital she has to pay for 4 seats – one for herself, one for each child and one for the wheelchair. In addition to that many people do not like sharing a space with children that are “not normal”.

With our assistance T.S. has begun selling second-hand clothing. This is to try and generate some income so that she can care for her children but also start looking towards rebuilding her home. We have also assisted with food parcels for her (and many other families) in the months since the floods. This however has not helped with her transport issues. Together with another organisation we have managed to provide a service through Uber. Patients that live within the greater Durban area who have formal addresses can now be fetched from home and taken to hospital. Once they are finished with their appointments, an Uber will take them home. This has been hugely beneficial on several fronts. Firstly, there is no cost to the family, secondly those that are physically challenged can now be transported more easily, thirdly those that are immune-compromised due to their treatment like chemotherapy do not have to share a vehicle with many unknown strangers and lastly the time spent travelling has been almost halved.

This has been a massive improvement in our families lives. This same organisation has also assisted Umduduzi in getting a vehicle that is more suitable to access the areas we work in. Previously we have used our personal vehicles many of which are not suitable for off-road driving. The addition of this vehicle has improved our ability to reach families that are “off the beaten track”.

As NGOs we all need to stand together. Many of us are competing for the same funding pool and at times this can lead to insular thinking. Umduduzi has always believed that partnership is the best way to achieve what we can for those that we serve. This has always been our mind-set and we feel that we have benefitted from that through these two amazing initiatives.