[Applause]
it was the Saturday chosen April my
phone rang and it was one of those
dreaded calls your son has been in an
accident and I said to the paramedics
immediately please take him to a
Children’s Hospital I’ll Drive there and
he miracle responded almost as if he
didn’t understand understand what he had
said and said ma’am we can’t do that we
can’t fly him to Cape Town is too far
I didn’t mean Kate her I just meant
take him to that place that I’ve assumed
all along we’ve set aside for children
when they in trouble instead he stayed
for under the next six hours and the
care of a clinic that hardly ever cared
for him with a doctor and just before we
assumed a public health care facility
this was a private health care facility
and no one had taken care the next month
we said we set on grey chase the grey
flow the gray walls and quite bitter
coffee that gets served in those
hospital family rooms but we said there
a month later I walked up to his bed I
closed his eyes I surrendered him to the
aerial center which had imagined was his
heaven which was a bubble in water
someone in heaven Madiba had walked with
us this road he has set with us in the
grey room the grey chess and the grey
walls my daughters and I and my husband
many years later many months later
we would talk about this room we would
talk about how would make it more
comfortable for other families so they
don’t have to sit there so we were
really going to make a contribution
renovate put a nice edge here a few
colorful things on the walls and just
maybe maybe a couch oh maybe a shower as
well so mothers can refresh well we also
walked with a man who loved children
Dibley and one of the things he missed
in Robben Island were the voices of
children the beautiful voices and their
little fingers and the circus ends he
missed that the most and long after the
Jennie
she said but we can’t leave it here and
of course we were going to say yes we’re
going to renovate and make things look
beautiful and pretty but he had big
ideas which were based on the experience
our knowledge gap there were skills gap
all of that needed to be attended to he
talked about the Children’s Hospital I
had a head scream how do you build a
hospital those things are there that’s
why I thought there was a Children’s
Hospital there’s some way someone must
have built it now he’s asking me to
build it I’m not a healthcare
professional I know nothing about
healthcare and probably what I know is
dangerous and here my were the task
weight we start we look at the
statistics good managers always do and
the statistics were shocking for every
30,000 children in South Africa there
was one pediatrician compare that with
the world for every one thousand eight
hundred children in the United States
for example would be a one pediatrician
so our ratios were bad the continent of
Africa as we all know is a young
continent it’s the one continent whose
population
is mostly under the age of 30 but for
this continent we found there were only
four children’s hospitals – in Egypt one
was in Kenya and of course the one that
the period that the medical people were
referring to the Cape Town hospital this
served all our children and the
population small population of Canada
was probably the population of the
province yet had no less than 19
children’s hospitals the United States
they were 157 children’s hospitals we
drew a concept paper as we often do as
managers and I did it drew a concept
paper that our board looked at already
we knew it would cost us about a billion
rent to do this to train – to build to
train – there are lots of things that
needed to be done it would take us so
much money and I remember who was my
cute it gives a cute concert paper about
the need and when I compared it to the
business case that we completed in 2012
it just shows how long the genuis and
how long how much we had to learn
Madiba had dedicated and asked his wife
mrs. crusher Michelle to provide
leadership we needed her leadership more
than that we probably needed a mom who
did someone who knew a little bit better
than us as we concluded we found a
philanthropist who answered my big
question my greatest scream in my head
how we’re gonna find this money and a
philanthropist immediately committed not
only to build but to equip and to help
manage and operate the hospital my job
is done also I thought I went home and I
said my job is done in three years time
we’ll have a hospital I’ve got a funder
all what I have to do is to do all the
technical
and indeed he came through he helped us
with all our feasibility studies he
immobilized owners we’re best friends
we talked almost daily she was going to
be not only a funder but was going to be
our partner as life would happen he then
founded a foundation and one of the
first projects for them to review was
this one and the decision they made was
that there were other pressing much more
pressing development needs in the
continent rather than a Children’s
Hospital
this message was community
communicated to us and instead of the
hundred percent funding in everything
done for us the new organization now
said we will continue to support you but
we will only fund ten percent at the end
of your fundraising we won’t put it down
now so I moved from 100% to 0% of a
billion I still don’t even know how to
count a billion but I had to raise a
bigger grant my board the board of the
Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund which
under the deputy chief justice Messina
gay had approved the initial concept had
to reconvene and this time they
reconvened under the leadership of
justice
Yvonne mokoro and she was decisive in
her leadership she confirmed that you
know it Children’s Hospital is one of
those things once you’ve seen the need
and you’ve seen how much we needed it
you couldn’t go back and I need it so we
needed to do something
and we decided we will study at home
we’ll raise the funds at home but before
that I’m an African woman so what we do
in Africa especially as women when
things are really hard we take a rep we
take a cloth we’ll wrap it around our
waists
and we tie it they’re attacked sad
people so I needed to do that and we
needed to do that because South Africa
needed to do that to collect itself to
pull itself towards itself and to stand
up in the world and take care of his own
babies the world was not going to baby
us anymore incidentally the first person
to walk in and give a support was
infected dutchman who walked to our
offices with his family his wife his
three children and they all said them
and they said they listen to our story
and they said here’s a million dollars
and I said well the heavens have spoken
this must go ahead right this must go
ahead and it was indeed the beginning of
the greatest public campaign we’ve ever
seen by the time we broke ground 60% of
the funding had come from South Africans
my most favorite donor is a 12 year old
who brought his piggy bank and we sat
down and we had a cup of tea like I do
with all my doughnuts and we shared what
his vision was what he wanted to see and
from that moment we started what we call
for kids by kids and as a result our
children have themselves put a stamp in
this hospital in a part of this hospital
distinguished leaders came around the
Dead Sea see a grassroots organization
came up as you can see the building
coming up said sissy came up grassroots
and they put a million range many
leaders business leaders
came as well and they provided
leadership Chairman’s and CEOs became my
friends in knocking at doors we got used
to the fact that for every $20 we knock
that one will open and we learned to
enter with respect with love with care
with compassion we still continue to
walk with the leaders as we did so when
we started this hospital we also
understood that it had to keep to the
principles of inclusivity and therefore
we could in turn a child away for
parents inability to pay and for that
principle we needed the government to
come to the party I promise you if the
Minister of Health was a lesser man he
would have by now have blocked my phone
number just the number of times I called
him when we in crisis but in December
the Minister of Health mr. Aaron matzah
lady and the then Finance Minister
Pravin Gordhan signed and committed
profit operational costs for the
hospital with those two and 50% of the
funding in in the kitty
we took a calculated risk and we started
to build to build the hospital that is
today standing the construction company
had a strange brief time frames were set
the budget was set it had no one not
what singer panic would go beyond what
was already set we gambled and the
gamble paid as they built will raise
funds as they build will raise funds
but that was not all the only gamble we
also were playing another cat and mouse
game with the training and the skills
who was going to be the people we’re
gonna find the skills we found enough
funding for the National Skills Fund to
start training so three four years
before we started building we’re already
training and hoping that the pipeline
will be ready by the time
open we open the facility and of course
at this point we’re thinking is just a
infrastructure project but really when
this hospital is measured twenty years
down the line it will be on care for
children level of the cup of research
our capacity for research transformation
of healthcare in the best interest of
children this is probably one of the
biggest if not the biggest civil society
led initiative initiatives in South
Africa it’s also an indication that we
as a continent are capable of
reimagining ourselves of imagining
different realities even as we walk
through the wards of the hospital today
treating the next Mandela’s not knowing
which one of them is our next Mandela
and therefore treating each one of them
odd K we still worried how far we can go
but we are confident that with all the
people who’ve gathered as Africans do
we’ve all gathered to make this possible
and to change the world for our children
as Mandela says said it always seems
impossible until it is done I thank
you
it was the Saturday chosen April my
phone rang and it was one of those
dreaded calls your son has been in an
accident and I said to the paramedics
immediately please take him to a
Children’s Hospital I’ll Drive there and
he miracle responded almost as if he
didn’t understand understand what he had
said and said ma’am we can’t do that we
can’t fly him to Cape Town is too far
I didn’t mean Kate her I just meant
take him to that place that I’ve assumed
all along we’ve set aside for children
when they in trouble instead he stayed
for under the next six hours and the
care of a clinic that hardly ever cared
for him with a doctor and just before we
assumed a public health care facility
this was a private health care facility
and no one had taken care the next month
we said we set on grey chase the grey
flow the gray walls and quite bitter
coffee that gets served in those
hospital family rooms but we said there
a month later I walked up to his bed I
closed his eyes I surrendered him to the
aerial center which had imagined was his
heaven which was a bubble in water
someone in heaven Madiba had walked with
us this road he has set with us in the
grey room the grey chess and the grey
walls my daughters and I and my husband
many years later many months later
we would talk about this room we would
talk about how would make it more
comfortable for other families so they
don’t have to sit there so we were
really going to make a contribution
renovate put a nice edge here a few
colorful things on the walls and just
maybe maybe a couch oh maybe a shower as
well so mothers can refresh well we also
walked with a man who loved children
Dibley and one of the things he missed
in Robben Island were the voices of
children the beautiful voices and their
little fingers and the circus ends he
missed that the most and long after the
Jennie
she said but we can’t leave it here and
of course we were going to say yes we’re
going to renovate and make things look
beautiful and pretty but he had big
ideas which were based on the experience
our knowledge gap there were skills gap
all of that needed to be attended to he
talked about the Children’s Hospital I
had a head scream how do you build a
hospital those things are there that’s
why I thought there was a Children’s
Hospital there’s some way someone must
have built it now he’s asking me to
build it I’m not a healthcare
professional I know nothing about
healthcare and probably what I know is
dangerous and here my were the task
weight we start we look at the
statistics good managers always do and
the statistics were shocking for every
30,000 children in South Africa there
was one pediatrician compare that with
the world for every one thousand eight
hundred children in the United States
for example would be a one pediatrician
so our ratios were bad the continent of
Africa as we all know is a young
continent it’s the one continent whose
population
is mostly under the age of 30 but for
this continent we found there were only
four children’s hospitals – in Egypt one
was in Kenya and of course the one that
the period that the medical people were
referring to the Cape Town hospital this
served all our children and the
population small population of Canada
was probably the population of the
province yet had no less than 19
children’s hospitals the United States
they were 157 children’s hospitals we
drew a concept paper as we often do as
managers and I did it drew a concept
paper that our board looked at already
we knew it would cost us about a billion
rent to do this to train – to build to
train – there are lots of things that
needed to be done it would take us so
much money and I remember who was my
cute it gives a cute concert paper about
the need and when I compared it to the
business case that we completed in 2012
it just shows how long the genuis and
how long how much we had to learn
Madiba had dedicated and asked his wife
mrs. crusher Michelle to provide
leadership we needed her leadership more
than that we probably needed a mom who
did someone who knew a little bit better
than us as we concluded we found a
philanthropist who answered my big
question my greatest scream in my head
how we’re gonna find this money and a
philanthropist immediately committed not
only to build but to equip and to help
manage and operate the hospital my job
is done also I thought I went home and I
said my job is done in three years time
we’ll have a hospital I’ve got a funder
all what I have to do is to do all the
technical
and indeed he came through he helped us
with all our feasibility studies he
immobilized owners we’re best friends
we talked almost daily she was going to
be not only a funder but was going to be
our partner as life would happen he then
founded a foundation and one of the
first projects for them to review was
this one and the decision they made was
that there were other pressing much more
pressing development needs in the
continent rather than a Children’s
Hospital
this message was community
communicated to us and instead of the
hundred percent funding in everything
done for us the new organization now
said we will continue to support you but
we will only fund ten percent at the end
of your fundraising we won’t put it down
now so I moved from 100% to 0% of a
billion I still don’t even know how to
count a billion but I had to raise a
bigger grant my board the board of the
Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund which
under the deputy chief justice Messina
gay had approved the initial concept had
to reconvene and this time they
reconvened under the leadership of
justice
Yvonne mokoro and she was decisive in
her leadership she confirmed that you
know it Children’s Hospital is one of
those things once you’ve seen the need
and you’ve seen how much we needed it
you couldn’t go back and I need it so we
needed to do something
and we decided we will study at home
we’ll raise the funds at home but before
that I’m an African woman so what we do
in Africa especially as women when
things are really hard we take a rep we
take a cloth we’ll wrap it around our
waists
and we tie it they’re attacked sad
people so I needed to do that and we
needed to do that because South Africa
needed to do that to collect itself to
pull itself towards itself and to stand
up in the world and take care of his own
babies the world was not going to baby
us anymore incidentally the first person
to walk in and give a support was
infected dutchman who walked to our
offices with his family his wife his
three children and they all said them
and they said they listen to our story
and they said here’s a million dollars
and I said well the heavens have spoken
this must go ahead right this must go
ahead and it was indeed the beginning of
the greatest public campaign we’ve ever
seen by the time we broke ground 60% of
the funding had come from South Africans
my most favorite donor is a 12 year old
who brought his piggy bank and we sat
down and we had a cup of tea like I do
with all my doughnuts and we shared what
his vision was what he wanted to see and
from that moment we started what we call
for kids by kids and as a result our
children have themselves put a stamp in
this hospital in a part of this hospital
distinguished leaders came around the
Dead Sea see a grassroots organization
came up as you can see the building
coming up said sissy came up grassroots
and they put a million range many
leaders business leaders
came as well and they provided
leadership Chairman’s and CEOs became my
friends in knocking at doors we got used
to the fact that for every $20 we knock
that one will open and we learned to
enter with respect with love with care
with compassion we still continue to
walk with the leaders as we did so when
we started this hospital we also
understood that it had to keep to the
principles of inclusivity and therefore
we could in turn a child away for
parents inability to pay and for that
principle we needed the government to
come to the party I promise you if the
Minister of Health was a lesser man he
would have by now have blocked my phone
number just the number of times I called
him when we in crisis but in December
the Minister of Health mr. Aaron matzah
lady and the then Finance Minister
Pravin Gordhan signed and committed
profit operational costs for the
hospital with those two and 50% of the
funding in in the kitty
we took a calculated risk and we started
to build to build the hospital that is
today standing the construction company
had a strange brief time frames were set
the budget was set it had no one not
what singer panic would go beyond what
was already set we gambled and the
gamble paid as they built will raise
funds as they build will raise funds
but that was not all the only gamble we
also were playing another cat and mouse
game with the training and the skills
who was going to be the people we’re
gonna find the skills we found enough
funding for the National Skills Fund to
start training so three four years
before we started building we’re already
training and hoping that the pipeline
will be ready by the time
open we open the facility and of course
at this point we’re thinking is just a
infrastructure project but really when
this hospital is measured twenty years
down the line it will be on care for
children level of the cup of research
our capacity for research transformation
of healthcare in the best interest of
children this is probably one of the
biggest if not the biggest civil society
led initiative initiatives in South
Africa it’s also an indication that we
as a continent are capable of
reimagining ourselves of imagining
different realities even as we walk
through the wards of the hospital today
treating the next Mandela’s not knowing
which one of them is our next Mandela
and therefore treating each one of them
odd K we still worried how far we can go
but we are confident that with all the
people who’ve gathered as Africans do
we’ve all gathered to make this possible
and to change the world for our children
as Mandela says said it always seems
impossible until it is done I thank
you
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