Friday, July 12, 2019
Emperors Palace joins the prestigious list of companies who have funded a Dream Room through Reach For A Dream – a sanctuary for children with life-threatening illnesses at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.
An initiative that launched in 2018, Dream Rooms are dedicated spaces at hospitals for children and their families who are facing life-threatening illnesses and undergoing treatment. The Emperors Palace Dream Room is designed to help families escape an unfamiliar, and often intimidating, clinical environment to instead spend time in a colourful area that inspires delight in the people who visit. Designed as sanctuaries within South African hospitals, these Dream Rooms are spaces where hospitalised children can experience the joy of being a child.
“Thanks to Emperors Palace, this is now our fifth room and we have ten more rooms to complete before the end of 2019,” says Reach For A Dream Foundation CEO, Julia Sotirianakos. The Reach For A Dream Foundation have committed to 30 Dream Rooms at various hospitals around the country that supply critical care to hospitalised children between the ages of three and 18. “Our 2019 aim is an ambitious one,” continues Sotirianakos, “And it is only thanks to partners like Emperors Palace that these dreams of ours can be brought to life.”
Emperors Palace General Manager, Clive Tavener, says they are proud to be able to support a foundation that does so much to help and care for children suffering from severe illnesses and life-threatening conditions. “We hope that the Emperors Palace Dream Room will help in a small way to provide a safe and comfortable haven for these children and their families, while they are undergoing treatment.”
The Emperors Palace Dream Room at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital is the second Dream Room in this hospital, and joins the two Dream Rooms at Chris Hani Baragwaneth Paediatric Oncology Ward and the Dream Room at Steve Biko Academic Hospital, Paediatric Oncology. Many of the children at these hospitals spend months on end undergoing treatment for serious conditions.
Sotirianakos concludes, “Every year we help fulfil thousands of dreams for children, and our hope with the rollout of these Dream Rooms is to help make a very difficult time a little easier, and hopefully a little happier, while they’re in hospital.”
To support other Dream Rooms around the country, please contact Natalie Lazaris at natalie@reachforadream.org.za.
