Kids enjoy new Dream Room at Steve Biko Hospital

Reach For A Dream, and the Federated Employers Mutual Assurance Company (FEM) recently launched the Dream Room in the Paediatric Cardiac Ward at Steve Biko Academic Hospital.

The new room is the latest addition to the partners’ nationwide initiative, designed to create a haven where children can escape the clinical environment of hospital care and step into a world of creativity, play and hope.

Dream rooms are equipped with interesting toys, art supplies, books, and immersive virtual reality experiences. This room has been carefully designed to be a joyful sanctuary for young patients in the paediatric cardiac ward.

Manning this new Dream Room are psychology graduates who receive on-the-job training to ensure each child enjoys a moment of tranquillity and benefits from expert guidance tailored to their emotional and developmental needs.

They work closely with the children to help them reach their early developmental checkpoints (EDC) milestones, providing supportive activities that foster growth and build resilience during their hospital stay.

Julia Sotirianakos, CEO of the Reach For A Dream Foundation, said the Dream Room launch on February 5 was the 46th Dream Room they’ve done nationwide and the third at Steve Biko.

“As you know, children who are sick are often confined to their beds; there isn’t a lot for them to do. We wanted to come up with a way that children can be children, and the only way we can do this in a hospital setting is by creating a designated space for them to come to learn, play, have fun and be distracted,” she said.

The foundation works with hospitals across the country in oncology wards, cardiac wards, pediatric wards, nephrology wards (offering care for kidney-related diseases), renal and other illnesses.

Rules may vary from hospital to hospital or ward to ward, however, the Dream Room is open to the kids most of the day, and there is a scheduled list of activities for them each day of the week.

The foundation has been doing this work for 36 years, working with children with life-threatening illnesses and making their dreams come true.

Sotirianakos said their next Dream Room will be in Steve Biko as well.

“We have a lot of children that get referred here, so there are a lot of sick children in this hospital, and we have 46 so far across the country, and there is still another eight to go this year,” Sotirianakos said.

Professor Jayneel Joshi, a paediatric cardiologist at Steve Biko and the University of Pretoria, said the Dream Room is necessary because of the opportunities it affords children from various areas around the country.

“Our children come from a very wide geographical distribution. They have heart, kidney or neurological conditions, and when they come to the ward, they don’t have a facility where they can be comfortable and safe or have access to education in the ECD sector. Our Dream Room actually means we have that safe space for the children and their parents (or caregivers) to also go and spend time, be cared for and be looked after by the interns. This also means that the nursing staff won’t always have to keep the kids occupied and can perform their duties as the medical staff,” Joshi said.

He added that they aim to motivate young children because the majority of the parents come from historically economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

“They have not seen TVs, PlayStations or virtual reality; they don’t know what these things are. In today’s world, if you don’t know a lot about technology, you will definitely be left behind. So Reach For A Dream has actually installed virtual reality technology, the interns actually can take the virtual reality helmets and show these children what a giraffe, a rhino, and an elephant look like, a lot of them have never seen these kinds of animals before.”

Joshi said they hope to raise funds for the ward throughout 2025 and the Dream Room is going to be equipped with a palliative care cubicle.

The operational manager of the paediatric ward at Steve Biko, Babsy Makhubedu, said she was filled with gratitude for the work of Reach For A Dream and FEM.

Makhubedu is nearing her 18th year working in the ward with children and said their innocence is what makes it worthwhile.

“Kids are so innocent; I feel like I’ve been blessed with an opportunity to work with kids. They are honest when they’re sick, they’re sick when they’re happy, they jump and play, and they just give you an honest picture of how they feel. I’m so excited for the Dream Room, like I’m the one who’s going to play there. The kids get so bored spending time in the hospital that they have chronic conditions, so they are in and out of the hospital. They get scared because most of the time, they’re waiting for the doctor or have to do a medical procedure that is painful, and they are scared of needles, so having a playroom distracts and relaxes them,” she said.

Makhubedu said more common issues the department sees among their patients are the heart conditions that they can be born with, kidney and liver problems and, in most cases, their life spans are short.

“I think health education for parents can go a long way. While pregnant, make sure you attend your antenatal appointments it will help with getting more information from your clinic,” Makhubedu said.

“At FEM, we are committed to initiatives that make a meaningful difference in the lives of those who need it most. Partnering with Reach For A Dream to create this Dream Room at Steve Biko Academic Hospital aligns with our mission to support communities and enhance well-being. We believe that a space filled with hope, imagination, and comfort can have a profound impact on the recovery journey of young patients. It is our privilege to contribute to a project that brings joy and relief to children and their families during challenging times,” said Nazeer Hoosen, FEM CEO.

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