The festive gees was running high at Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH) on Wednesday, when hundreds of in-patients were handed grocery and hygiene hampers, while enjoying the heart-warming sounds of the St. Timothy’s Christmas Band.
Staff distributed 800 hampers to in-patients at the hospital as part of its annual project to lift holiday spirits in the wards.
Patient Craig Visser from Mitchells Plain suffered a stroke last Tuesday and says: “It’s wonderful because I was telling the lady early on that I was feeling a bit down this morning because the doctors told me that I could only leave in about 48 hours and my heart was set on leaving today.
“So I was down this morning, but when people came to sing, it all made me feel very good. They brought the spirit of giving and so on.”
GSH communications officer Alaric Jacobs says the initiative is now in its 11th year and that the hospital and staff love the project.
He says: “It’s a difficult economic climate and most of our patients in our hospital come from the poorer areas, so it’s important to us to obviously make that difference in the community.
“A lot of these people are sick patients and have been at the hospital for long periods of time so basically they can’t really provide for their people at home anyway.
“So it’s just us really helping the families, for those who are in hospital, so that they can maybe send these packages home to help at home and provide for them while they can’t because they’re at the hospital.”
GSH Facility Board manager Shanaaz Dove thanked the generous sponsors, saying: “Obviously, with the economic climate, donors are kind of dwindling. But the Board still felt it was an important thing to continue with, so we’ve packed 800 parcels over the past three days.”
shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za