The monthly home-based palliative care of more than 500 patients and loved ones living with lifethreatening or life-limiting illnesses in the greater Pietermaritzburg region has been assured
following the recent R280 000 donation of an essential vehicle, enabling its professional team to
travel to both urban and rural homes to deliver invaluable care services.
The South African Muslim Charitable Trust (SAMCT) donated the vehicle to the Msunduzi Hospice
Association, a Non-Profit and Public Benefit Organisation, which was established in 1983 by
concerned volunteers, significantly boosting its outreach efforts.
Commenting on its vehicle sponsorship, SAMCT representative, Mr Gaff Osman, said: “The Msunduzi
Hospice Association provides an absolutely invaluable palliative care service in Pietermaritzburg and
its environs. It covers a huge area and an extremely large number of people, facing both life-limiting
and life-threatening illnesses, are hugely dependent on its team reaching them.”
“Outreach is core to the organisation’s activities and, therefore, transport must be regarded as a
non-negotiable imperative, if the organisation is to be successful in its delivery of the care it offers.”
Learning of the organisation’s transport predicament, the SAMCT was quick to respond, sponsoring
the purchase of an appropriate vehicle, thus enabling it to carry-out and expand its specialised
medical care of both patients and patient family members.
The SAMCT was created in 2008, the result of a partnership between Old Mutual Unit Trusts and Al
Baraka Bank, for the creation, marketing and distribution of a suite of Shariah Funds. The
organisation provides funding, services and other resources for the improvement of the lives of the
vulnerable, deprived and disadvantaged. It has been singularly successful in delivering sizeable
assistance solutions throughout South Africa – irrespective of race or religion – and continues to work
to support needy organisations in the fields of healthcare, social development, poverty alleviation
and education.
The Msunduzi Hospice Association is an acclaimed centre of Palliative Excellence in KwaZulu-Natal
and has been accredited by the Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (Cohsasa)
since 2005.
It strives to provide and promote quality of life, dignity in death and bereavement support for
patients and their families faced with both life-threatening and life-limiting illness, through direct
patient care, education, effective management systems, advocacy, training and empowerment.
Palliative care is provided by a team of doctors, nurses and other specialists who work together with
the patient’s primary care team to offer an extra layer of support and is recognised as a vital
component of basic and essential services for those facing serious illness.
“Services, such as those provided by the Msunduzi Hospice Association, are essential and should be
available to all our country’s citizens, especially those living in more vulnerable communities.”
Accordingly, the SAMCT was privileged to have been able to play a supportive role in the Msunduzi
Hospice Association’s best endeavours, by providing the transport link the organisation so
desperately needed to ensure that its small professional and dedicated team was better positioned
to service its some 538 patients and loved ones every month,” said Mr Osman.
For more information about the SAMCT or it’s Msunduzi Hospice Association vehicle donation,
please contact:
Rasheeda Motala
Social Responsibility Officer
Tel: 084 506 2280
Email: samct@samct.co.za