Here is little Chaney. She has been fostered for three weeks by a wonderful couple called Belinda and Leon. She has a large hole in the bottom two chambers of her heart and is scheduled for surgery today at 12 o clock. (04/04/2008)

The Walter Sisulu Paediatric Cardiac Centre for Africa (WSPCCA), situated within Netcare’s Sunninghill Hospital, Johannesburg is a 16 bedded dedicated paediatric cardiac intensive care unit and was established in 2003 by Dr Robin Kinsley.

Previously head of department at Witwatersrand University, Dr Kinsley was struck by the fact that paediatric cardiac surgery in Africa has long been a luxury available only to the privileged few, which meant that, for all intents and purposes, entire populations have been excluded from treatment for a correctable medical condition. Fewer than 30% of South African children and less than 1% of children throughout Africa benefit from these life saving operations. The rest die.

Ironically, 95% of heart defects in babies and young children can be successfully treated. The WSPCCA came into being to address this inequality and to give hope to the cardiac children in both SA and Africa at large.

Madiba said in his address at the opening of the WSPCCA: “The Walter Sisulu Paediatric Cardiac Centre for Africa is an initiative that deserves the support of all of us - private and corporate. The centre needs financial as well as moral support. I trust that the private sector shall respond as generously in support of this centre as I have always found them to do when I called upon them for support.”