Assisting paediatric patients through Lethabo La Bana Foundation's facility upgrade project
The Blue Bulls Rugby Union and Sibanye-Stillwater Charity Golf Day assisted Good Morning Angels to provide substantial assistance to the Lethabo La Bana Foundation.
Update: June 17 2026
This Youth Day, Sibanye-Stillwater, the Blue Bulls Rugby Union and Good Morning Angels visited paediatric patients at Steve Biko Academic Hospital.
Together with the Lethabo La Bana Foundation, they distributed comfort packs and gowns to the children and their mothers.
They also delivered lever-arch files to help the doctors and nursing staff maintain records for their young patients.
Last week, we met the founders of the Lethabo La Bana Foundation, which was established by doctors at Steve Biko Academic Hospital and Kalafong Provincial Tertiary Hospital to support the children they treat and operate on.
“The foundation is there to bridge the gap between what the state offers and what remains needed for patients”, says Prof. De Villiers, HOD of paediatric surgery at the University of Pretoria/Steve Biko Academic Hospital and founder of the foundation.
In most cases, children are admitted with no personal belongings (e.g. toiletries, clothing, pyjamas).
The state is also not in a position to provide this.
Their mothers are allowed to stay with them, and the moms don’t have toiletries either.
They need comfort packs with basic toiletries.
There are 60 children in their wards (at Steve Biko and Kalafong) at any given time, and the cost per bag is R325.
The Foundation also addresses the broader gap by supplementing materials (such as wound care dressings) when the state supply runs out.
The correct dressing is essential and can impact a burn patient’s recovery - and their burden on state resources - dramatically. They need R50,000 a year for this.
The Foundation also has an ambitious, but essential, long-term project in mind: converting the current nurses' tea room into a fit-for-purpose, specialised wound care room.
REQUEST FOR: The Lethabo La Bana Foundation, represented by its founders: Prof Mariza de Villiers, Head of the Clinical Unit for Paediatric Surgery, and Dr Lola Chuma, Specialist Paediatric Surgeon at Steve Biko Academic Hospital and Kalafong Provincial Tertiary Hospital
REQUEST FROM: Dr Claire Rossouw
ANGEL 1: Evert Coetzer, Vice-President at Sibanye-Stillwater and Jaco Dames, CEO of the Blue Bulls Rugby Union
SPONSORING: Sibanye-Stillwater and the Blue Bulls Rugby Union hosted their charity golf day on Friday, 12 June. Using funds raised at the event, they will assist the Lethabo La Bana Foundation with a further R120 000 towards its facility upgrade project at Steve Biko Academic Hospital. Together with last week’s donation of R100 000, this brings the total contribution from the golf day to R220 000.
ANGEL 2: The Good Morning Angels Fund NPC
SPONSORING: The Good Morning Angels Fund will donate a further R100 000 to the Lethabo La Bana Foundation towards its facility upgrade project.
June 10 2026
REQUEST FOR: Lethabo La Bana Foundation
REQUEST FROM: Dr Claire Rossouw
ANGELS: Evert Coetzer, Vice President of Sibanye-Stillwater and Willem Strauss, President of the Vodacom Bulls
SPONSORING: Sibanye-Stillwater and the Vodacom Bulls will be hosting a charity golf day on Friday, 12 June.
From these funds, they will assist Lethabo La Bana Foundation with a total of R100,000, R50,000 for the comfort packs and R50,000 for a year's supply of wound dressings.
ORIGINAL REQUEST:
Dear Good Morning Angels Team,
I would like to introduce you to the Lethabo La Bana Foundation – a newly registered not-for-profit organisation (NPO 2025/192720/08) whose motto says it all: "It's All About the Children."
Founded by Prof M de Villiers (the HOD of the Hospital's paediatric surgery department) and her dedicated team at Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria, Lethabo La Bana exists to bridge the gap in paediatric surgery care in South Africa's public health sector. The foundation raises funds for essential needs that fall outside the hospital's budget, ensuring that every child who comes through their doors receives the best possible care.
One of the foundation's most urgent projects is a complete overhaul of the bathroom facilities in the paediatric burns unit at Steve Biko Academic Hospital. In its current state, the bathroom is simply not fit for purpose; it does not meet the basic clinical needs of the surgeons and nursing staff who care for these children every day. Treating burn injuries requires specialised bathing and wound-cleansing procedures. Without the right facilities, this becomes unnecessarily difficult and compromises the standard of care these little ones deserve.
Lethabo La Bana also supports trainees attending conferences and workshops, purchasing extra essential medical equipment and is working toward a fully specialised burn unit at Steve Biko. Right now, getting this bathroom right is the most urgent need standing between these children and better care.
These tiny patients have already been through so much. They deserve a facility that gives their caregivers every possible tool to help them heal.
I'm not based at the hospital, but I am a director of the Foundation and in regular contact with the Surgeons.
Kind regards, and thank you for your consideration
Claire Rossouw
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