The Children’s Hospital Trust is announcing its new expansion strategy in 2011 and beyond, to fundraise for projects that will impact paediatric healthcare across the Western Cape in addition to continuing to fundraise for the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital. Raymond Ackerman, Pick n Pay founder, and former Chairman, has announced his R1-million donation to the Trust in celebration of his 80th birthday tomorrow.

R500 000 of the Ackerman donation will go towards the R2-million needed for the Trust's first expanded-reach fundraising project, which is to equip four METRO Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ambulances with additional specialist paediatric equipment. This will improve EMS pre-hospital and inter-hospital services rendered to Neonate and Infant patients in the Western Cape Province.

The remaining R500 000 will go towards building a consolidated Paediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic (PIDC) & Clinical Research Unit at the Hospital. The Clinic will provide highly specialised treatment for children with infectious diseases including HIV. The total cost to build this facility is approximately R31.6-million. Raymond Ackerman’s R500 000 donation and the New Apostolic Church’s R500 000 donation brings the total raised for this project to R1-million.

“One of the founding philosophies of Pick ‘n Pay, and that of our family, is “Doing good is good Business”. It is never more true than now; what you put into our children’s future, you get out. I urge all individuals and businesses in South Africa to support the Children’s Hospital Trust as they shape the future of so many children in Africa. It is not a choice but rather our responsibility to give our children a future,” says Ackerman.

The existing Paediatric Infectious Disease Unit (PIDU) is a key paediatric research hub focusing on the diseases of childhood, trains paediatricians to the level of Infectious Diseases sub-specialists, runs a large community outreach programme which involves training and mentoring community health workers and doctors and influences national and international treatment programmes and guidelines. The PIDU at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital’s primary role is that of providing comprehensive care to children suffering from the most complex and severe infectious disease problems. The new PIDC will help them to do this more effectively, enabling patients to be treated faster thus allowing them to see and treat more children.

“The absence of a dedicated space to house all of the activities of the PIDU is problematic. The various activities within the unit are inter-related and yet take place in different parts of the Hospital, making integration, communication and ultimately patient care that much more challenging. Current outpatient facilities are not conducive to optimal care of children with HIV and do not address rapidly expanding specialised, clinical needs. What is needed is a dedicated facility to house all of the activities within a Paediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic & Clinical Research Unit,” explains Louise Driver, CEO of the Children’s Hospital Trust.

“In 2011 the Children’s Hospital Trust will continue to assist the Hospital, as it has done for the past 17 years, by raising funding to address the many pressing needs at the Hospital. The Trust will also be expanding its funding reach to projects beyond the Hospital’s doors within the Western Cape, which will broadly impact paediatric healthcare and indirectly impact patient outcomes and services to the Hospital. Mr Ackerman’s donation has given us the boost we needed to launch fundraising campaigns for these two critical services for sick children in southern Africa,” explains Driver.