The Super Sam Hero Vehicles

Chronically ill underprivileged children and their families are chauffeured to the hospital and their clinic appointments in Cape Town. The vehicles are operated by Paedspal – a local NGO in Cape Town that is focused on the paediatric palliative care sector. Our vehicles are not taxis or ambulances, but serve to transport stable children and their families to their necessary medical commitments, so that they can meet their rehabilitation and clinical follow-ups. The purpose of this initiative is also to try and ensure no child is ill alone or dies alone, and if a child passes away, that their families can be taken home in dignity and with some comfort. The aim is to take this initiative nationwide. Our current vehicles are sponsored by two primary donors, Hertz and Firefly Car Rental and The Efficient Group with insurance sponsored by GIB.

Need: Financial contributions to work towards purchasing additional vehicles and to cover the monthly costs of drivers and running costs.

The Super Sam Hero Bucket

Comprising of the Food Bucket, The Care Bucket and The Love Bucket. These buckets are delivered to families in hospital or when they are going home to ensure that they have some provisions available when they reach home after months in hospital. Can you imagine the trauma of taking a chronically ill child home and then still having to worry about how you are going to feed them and take care of their basic hygiene requirements. The Food Bucket consists of non-perishable food staples. The Care Bucket consists of toiletry items for mum and child. The Love Bucket consists of a few beautiful items, such as a blanket, a beautiful soft toy, and a Footprints 4 Sam bracelet. The buckets are delivered nationwide by Triton Express free of charge.

Need: Financial contributions to purchase the goods for the buckets. The Food and Care Buckets are currently packed by Checkers and the Love Buckets we pack ourselves.

The Beautiful Memory Initiative

This initiative looks at making beautiful memories for families at the hardest time in their lives and ensuring that key paediatric hospital spaces in Government Hospitals address the needs of patients, caregivers and health professionals to ensure that all rooms and wards are properly equipped and are lifesaving, healing and comforting spaces despite being in a poorly funded government hospital.

• The refurbishing of counselling, bereavement, breastfeeding & registrar rooms.
• The refurbishing of key paediatric wards such as our Dare To Fund a Dream Legacy NICU Project.

• Holding fun events for paediatric patients and caregivers at government hospitals at special times of year such as Christmas.  This enables everyone to celebrate life with fun experiences such as animal petting zoos and pony rides.
• Reaching out to treat health professionals in special ways to show them all that they are seen and valued through sponsored spa days and other events.

• Providing African Angel dresses made by The Conor James Foundation.

Need:

• Renovations: Financial contributions & professional expertise.
• Fun: Financial contributions & sponsorships
• End of Life Support: Psychologists and trained counsellors to assist families at their time of need.

The Super Sam Hero Wi-Fi Initiative

This is one of our key new focus areas. Here we are raising funds so that we can promote connectedness between families when children are stuck in hospital and are unable to see their families regularly or communicate without using expensive data. The idea is to start installing Wi-Fi in paediatric government wards and to create 'smart rooms' where children can play and have fun, despite their various restrictions and chronic conditions. Our aim is to put Wi-Fi and tablets into certain wards in government hospitals which will work in conjunction with the smart rooms.

Need: Financial contributions or a technology company to commit to assist in this area as part of their CSI contribution.

The SAM Support Group

This is a support and ministry group for parents who have lost a child or who support a chronically ill child. The SAM support group is currently only available in Gauteng and we would like to take this initiative nationwide. Attendance is free of charge. Our current support group in Gauteng meets on the last Tuesday of every month at 7pm at Mosaiēk Church in Fairlands. All faiths are welcome.

The SAM support group is overseen by Dr Johan Ferreira, a psychologist and Melissa Platt, a palliative coach. Please contact us for more details should you wish to attend.

Equine Therapy is also provided to public health professionals with a focus on self- care. These afternoon sessions at Shumbashaba farm create a beautiful space for health professionals to recharge and reconnect with themselves and others.

Need: Funding, venues and trained counsellors willing to work 'pro bono' in order to expand nationwide.

Advocacy

This initiative involves presenting to healthcare professionals and students during conferences and continuing medical information (CME) forums to build the Samuel Generation of Healthcare (a patient and family-centred approach to healthcare), as well as social media marketing campaigns to drive this extremely important value system.

We are passionate about building the Samuel Generation of Healthcare, so that Sam’s life lessons permeate ALL medical corridors and wards.

Other important elements of this initiative include:

• Our Parent’s Survival Guide for ICU to ensure that parents are better equipped and supported when facing the scary roller coaster of months in hospital and a basic check list for going home. (Hard copies are available for order from our online store.)
• Samuel Bracelets - 4 Sam - These beautiful bracelets are given out at talks, conferences and at sports events to ensure that all health professionals, children and families dealing with chronic illness receive these special bracelets. The aim is for the health professional to be reminded of the “human” and “child” that they serve and for the families and children to realise that they are not alone and that there is a community of support around them. They are also there to remind the health professional that they too are human and need to care for themselves, grieve and debrief regularly in order to be fully engaged with their patients, the patient’s families and to avoid the very real danger of compassion fatigue and burnout.

Need: Funding and social media exposure.