Lottery grant for South Coast Hospice
The money will help to fund the day-to-day running of the organisation.
A GENEROUS grant of R952 400, recently received from National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, will help South Coast Hospice to balance the budget this financial year.
And, with an annual operational budget in excess of R6-million, this is a difficult balancing act for hospice’s financial staff.
Through its inpatients facility, Kingfisher House, and its rural and urban home-based care programmes, South Coast Hospice offers dignity and world-class palliative care to thousands of South Coast patients suffering from life-threatening conditions like cancer, HIV/Aids, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and motor neuron disease.
Even when their patients’ suffering is over, hospice’s work is not done. Trained counsellors are able to offer comfort, grief counselling and professional assistance to the families who are left behind.
Throughout the world our hospice is recognised as a centre of excellence and a pioneer in the fields of palliative care, HIV/Aids and integrated community home-based care. It has, in fact, received many accolades for its innovative and effective programmes so it is not surprising that it is recognised as an important training centre. Through its many training programmes and courses South Coast Hospice is able to share with others the extensive knowledge and experience its staff members, volunteers and management team have accumulated over many years.
And all this, of course, takes a great deal of money. For this reason, South Coast Hospice applied to National Lottery for a R2-million grant in September last year. It received the R952 400 grant in December. Although not as much as was initially requested, the grant was very gratefully received.
“We are also grateful that National Lottery allows us to use the grant to fund our operational costs. We can use it to pay salaries and fund the day-to-day running of our organisation. Many donations come with strict criteria on how they must be spent or are given to pay for specific items,” said South Coast Hospice chief executive, Di van Dyk.
She added that the grant had come at just the right time as there had been a great deal of recent concern about financial matters. She hoped for further funding from National Lottery in the future and also thanked the caring South Coast community for all its support and assistance over the years.
