About Sunflower Children's Hospice Trust
The purpose of the Sunflower Children's Hospice Trust (formerly Bloemfontein Hospice Trust) is to raise awareness and funds in the UK to support the Sunflower Children's Hospice in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Sunflower Children’s Hospice was set up in 1998 to meet the palliative care needs of children with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-limiting conditions. It is the only hospice organisation serving a region of more than 700,000 people, with some of the highest poverty and HIV prevalence rates in South Africa. The founders recognised that the palliative care needs of children differ from those of adults, and the founding principle of Sunflower Children’s Hospice was that whilst it could not give its patients the gift of long life, it could provide them with loving and skilled hospice care, relief from pain and suffering, opportunities to play and enjoy being children and improved quality of life. It is the longest running children’s hospice in the whole of Africa.
Embedded in the local communities in which its patients live, and with strong links to local healthcare and global palliative care networks, Sunflower Children’s Hospice offers hospice care in the community and through its in-patient facility, Sunflower House. The outer walls of the hospice are painted with sunflowers, each bearing the name of a child who has died at the hospice. The sunflower wall signifies that short lives can be colourful and acts as a conduit for open conversations about death.
www.sunflowerhospicetrust.org.uk
gw_evans@hotmail.co.uk
Sunflower Children's Hospice Trust Registered charity number 1094625
