BEGINnINGS
The Wall of Hope project started in November 2017 when Dr. Wim De Mey contacted me from Windhoek Central Hospital. "The neonatal team of the Windhoek Central Hospital came up with the idea of showing a promise of prosperity by hanging posters of children who have bravely fought their ways from a premature or sick child to a boy or girl, in the corridors. These so called ‘famous’ children who have overcome their heroic struggle and thrive in daily life will then become ambassadors for their fellow neonates and will spread hope amongst the parents." - Dr. Wim De Mey.
We started taking photos of some survivors coming in for checkups and even visited a 17 year old Gurschzon van Wyk at his school. I contacted Richard at Frametique and together we decided to print each child's picture along with their story and have it framed with an engraved plaque of each sponsors name.
Yulian visiting the Neonatal Unit where he was born and stayed the first three months of his life.
SOME OF OUR BRAVE SURVIVORS
journey
Our aim was to target companies to each sponsor a child because the printing and frames is quite expensive at N$ 1 665.50 each but I was utterly amazed that individual families started to sponsor, families who themselves went through the emotional and challenging experience of having premature babies.
We have reached our target on 9 November 2018 and the hospital organised an event for World Prematurity Day on 23 November 2018. Our aim was to print, frame and hang them all before then.
We made it just in time and I met Frametique at the hospital on 22 November to hang all the frames. The event was a great success and I will post some photos as soon.
GOING FORWARD
The pictures makes a huge difference in the premature unit. When I got there the morning of the World Premature Day Event some mothers with premature babies currently at the unit were busy reading all the encouraging stories of those who came before them. There is still a huge empty space at the premature unit and we decided that we will keep this project going. We are looking for 20 more sponsors! If you would like to sponsor please follow the link below. If you want to help in any other way please contact me via email and I will provide you with the contact details of someone at the hospital. Windhoek Central Hospital also started a trust fund please contact me if you would like more information or if you would like to donate.
LETTER FROM THE NEONATAL TEAM
In the news
A BIG THANKS
Thank you to Richard Grant at Frametique and Heidi Müseler at House of Arts for all their help, from handling invoices to designing the layouts. They gave us a great special on printing and framing and offered to professionally hang all the frames free of cost.
Thank you to Christian Stiebahl Photography and Melanie de la Hunt Photography for the helping with the project! You can find them on Facebook:
