The funds are the result of Sea Harvest Kids for Kids initiative, which has been going for six years and donates a portion of the sales of selected Sea Harvest crumbed fish products to the Children’s Hospital Trust. This latest cheque handover brings the amount donated to the Trust to R1.6-million since Sea Harvest launched the first Kids for Kids initiative in 2010.

Sea Harvest marketing manager, Jared Patel, says, “Often we consider the state of the world and the pain and suffering that others experience and we feel powerless. However, each year we inform consumers about the drive, which usually runs from November to February, to provide them with an opportunity to be a part of this initiative. Since 2010 Sea Harvest’s Kids for Kids Initiative has donated funds to the Trust for various projects at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital, including a Surgical Skills Training Centre, a General Medical Ward, a new Medical Imaging Complex, and a Childsafe Research and Educational Centre.”

The Trust is raising funds for an upgraded and expanded paediatric intensive care unit (ICU), which is the largest ICU for children in Africa. Currently it has 22 beds for critically ill or injured children who come for specialised care and emergency surgeries from local areas and other African countries. The demands on this unit are higher than their capacity to deliver. Thanks to donations from Sea Harvest and others, the first of the four units in the ICU will be opened next month and the full ICU will be ready in October 2017.

The Children’s Hospital Trust’s CEO, Louise Driver, has stated that, “There is a dire need to expand the ICU to accommodate up to 39 beds, which includes a 10-bed High Care Unit for neonatal patients and the establishment of eight isolation cubicles. It is not only the increased amount of beds that is essential, but also the provision of more space around beds to comfortably accommodate critical life-saving equipment. Thanks to donors like Sea Harvest we are able to fund important projects like this that ultimately help save children’s lives.”

Click here to watch a video of one of the hospital’s patients, Cadi, who has personally experienced the adversity of being sick at such a tender age. She is now so passionate about the ICU campaign, that she has taken on the fundraising as a personal crusade and has become the Children’s Hospital Trust’s youngest champion ever.

For more information, visit childrenshospitaltrust.org.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook or on Twitter.