Scaling Up For Impact

2026 has started with purpose and drive.  And when I say drive - I mean this literally (:

In our last report we talked about growing our overall staff complement at Footprints 4 Sam to ensure that we can successfully expand our Footprints 4 Sam Super Hero Vehicle Initiative in Johannesburg, together with our other core initiatives which are all growing and thriving thanks to our remarkable donor support.

We are proud to announce that our first Johannesburg based Footprints 4 Sam vehicle will be launched in April 2026, which is just around the corner.  As I write this update, we are in the middle of driver interviews and assessments – making sure that we hire not only an excellent driver but also an excellent and caring human being.

Our Cape Town leg of this initiative has set a high standard and we are determined to both meet and exceed what has been achieved in Cape Town since 2018.

Footprints 4 Sam has now been in existence for over 8 years.  We registered in October 2017 and in this time we have established ourselves as a Charitable Trust, which is well known for our impactful paediatric healthcare initiatives – each initiative and associated programme changing lives meaningfully across South Africa for underprivileged Children with a life limiting or chronic illness, their families and the health professionals that support them.

We have done this with a very small complement of staff and volunteers but as the Trust has grown it has become important to ensure that we have a team professionally focused on each initiative – One that is full time employed to service the needs of our beneficiaries.  Footprints 4 Sam’s governance is well known and the Team chosen needs to continue to uphold our values and our terms of excellence in all that we do.

With your help we would like to hire:

- A full time Footprints 4 Sam Administration person to ensure that we are using our vehicles to their full capacity.  Each kilometre one which can change a life.  Johannesburg is a remarkable South African City that vibrates with life and hope.   The City of Gold attracts people from all over Africa and as a result the social need is great as we embark on the expansion of our key Super Sam Hero Vehicle Transport Initiative, where we take children who need to regularly go to hospital for follow ups to their appointments with dignity and pride.  Other key aspects of this initiative is to ensure that no child is ill alone in a hospital bed – or worse dies alone.

- A full time senior manager to focus on growing each of our core initiatives and to engage with grant writing and donors on a regular basis.

As our impact and Sam’s legacy grows, so does the demand on the Trust and all that we do.

With your help this demand and need can be translated into opportunity, dignity, humanity love and hope.

Help us expand what we do well with the human capital support that we truly need.  Give now and make a meaningful impact!  

With Love

Melissa 

Sam's Mum

Links:

• Footprints 4 Sam Trust Annual Report - Fin. Yr End 2025

At Footprints 4 Sam, our mission has always been to bring dignity, compassion and support to children, and families, facing the challenges of living with a life-limiting illness. One of the most critical needs we continue to witness is the lack of reliable, compassionate and dignified transport for patients and their caregivers - especially those from poorer communities - to attend vital medical appointments. Public transport is often unreliable, costly and nearly impossible to navigate with wheelchairs, buggies, or fragile health conditions.

Our two successful “Sam se Bussies” in Cape Town have, since inception, transported more than 15,700 passengers (including caregivers) and travelled over 435,000 kilometres across the city and beyond. Building on this success, we are now preparing to launch our first-ever Super Sam Hero Transport Vehicle in Johannesburg -serving local government hospitals and providing safe, chauffeur-driven transport for those who need it most. This service will ensure that patients and their families can travel to essential check-ups and treatments with dignity, comfort and care.

This initiative does more than bridge a logistical gap, it creates moments of connection, care and hope during some of life’s most difficult journeys.

To ensure sustainable expansion of the Footprints 4 Sam Super Hero Vehicle initiative we need to grow our core professional team.

Our goal always being to maintain a skilled professional team that understands the unique emotional and medical needs of the families we serve.

This includes:

* Training and upskilling of a new driver and a support person to engage sensitively with seriously ill children and their caregivers, whilst retaining accurate records for scheduling and reporting purposes.

* Engaging with other NGO’s and the hospital teams and mentoring programme coordinators at the hospitals to manage on the ground logistics, liaise with hospital staff and ensure the highest safety and operational standards.

We are working hard to raise the additional R20,000 (just over US$1,000) per month required to sustain this key expansion. Our goal is to ensure that every trip in a Footprints 4 Sam Super Hero Vehicle continues to reflect the care, dignity and compassion that defines all our work.

With your continued support through GlobalGiving, we can take this vital next step - empowering our team, launching our first vehicle in Johannesburg and continuing to lay “Footprints 4 Change” for the children and families who need it most.

Until next time!

Jo

Links:

• Watch our video on how this initiative changes lives!