Children’s Homes Outreach Medical Program (CHOMP)
Project Coordinator: Dr Gayle Sherman
Paediatrician: Dr Michelle Meiring
Medical Officer: Dr Stephanie Jones
Tel :(011) 942-2560 / 0824087102
Fax :(011) 941-2530
E-mail: meiringm@paedshiv.wits.ac.za
15 January 2004
To whom it may concern,
In my capacity as the Paediatrician for the Children’s Homes Outreach Medical Programme (CHOMP) I have had opportunity to meet and interact with Glenda Butler from The Sanctuary of ALL OUR CHILDREN FIRST in Edenvale.
I have found in Glenda a passion to help children suffering and indeed dying from HIV/AIDS as born out in her personal encounters with children that have passed through her home. Glenda understands both the need and also the responsibilities that are required to run a hospice for these children.
Personally, through my experience in working in Paediatric HIV Clinics and through research that I have conducted in the children’s homes in Johannesburg, I can also testify to this need for hospices for children. Children’s Hospices are places where these children’s symptoms can be controlled and where they can die with dignity. The hospitals are struggling to cope with the load of patients and in fact many are sent home to their own homes or children’s institutions to die. Even once the hopefully inevitable roll out of anti-retroviral treatment to these children becomes a reality, there will still be need for Palliative Care programmes.
At the moment the current children’s homes that have hospice type facilities are: Cotlands Baby Sanctuary (Turfontein), Sparrow Ministries (Maraisburg),St Francis Care Centre(Boxburg) and Lambano Baby Sanctuary (Kensington). CHOMP is directly involved in managing patients in these facilities. There is also a 5 bed paediatric ward at the Houghton Hospice for which I am the Paediatric Consultant. As can be seen from the geographical distribution of these hospices there is still a need for a paediatric hospice facility in Edenvale. The CHOMP team that includes Dr Stephanie Jones who has a diploma in Palliative Medicine, will also be available to assist Glenda with her Hospice.
I wish Glenda well with this venture. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at the numbers listed in the letterhead.
Yours sincerely
Dr M.A.Meiring
Paediatrician for CHOMP
