National Children’s Day takes place on Saturday 04 November 2017. To celebrate, Sea Harvest is kicking off their annual Kids 4 Kids initiative this week with a commitment to raise R300 000 for the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town.
Now in its eighth year, the Kids 4 Kids initiative will run from November 2017 through to February 2018. During this time, Sea Harvest will donate a portion of the sales of selected crumbed fish products to the Hospital’s fundraising organisation, the Children’s Hospital Trust.
The amount pledged will be allocated to the Weekend Waiting List Initiative, which runs for a total of 24 weeks and entails adding an additional day of surgery (on a Saturday) to the hospital’s operating schedule in order to reduce the surgical waiting list backlog. By performing a large number of relatively minor surgeries and other theatre procedures on Saturdays, surgeons will have more time to conduct emergency and complex surgeries during the week.
The Hospital’s Medical Manager, Anita Parbhoo, says, “Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital is well known nationally and internationally for performing complex surgical procedures. Performing these intricate, time-consuming operations often leads to the cancellation of surgeries for many of the patients with minor conditions, due to time constraints and a lack of beds.” The Weekend Waiting List initiative started in 2011, when 54 patients were treated on Saturdays over a period of eight weeks. In 2016, the Hospital’s skilled surgeons tended to 132 patients over 24 Saturdays. In total, the Weekend Waiting List initiative has supported 659 patients between 2011 and 2016. This year’s Weekend Waiting List initiative began on 01 July 2017 and will wrap up on Saturday 09 December 2017.
The Children’s Hospital Trust has received more than R2.1 million through the Sea Harvest Kids 4 Kids initiative over the past seven years. In addition to supporting the Weekend Waiting List initiative previously in 2014, funds have been used to purchase a giraffe warmer machine and for building renovations and upgrades to the Surgical Skills Unit, the general medical ward, the radiology complex, the paediatric ICU and the establishment of a child safe centre.
Sea Harvest Sales and Marketing Director, Konrad Geldenhuys, says, “There is nothing more rewarding than helping others. It is our pleasure to continue supporting Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital so that its young patients can have the excellent medical treatment that they desperately need.”