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Mandela Children’s Hospital opens in Johannesburg

  • Chicago Defender Newsroom

CARING FOR KIDS—The main entrance the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Dec. 2. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
CARING FOR KIDS—The main entrance the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Dec. 2. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

JOHANNESBURG (AP)—Nelson Mandela’s dream of a hospital to provide specialized care for children has opened in Johannesburg on Friday.
The 200-bed Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital cost $70 million to build. It was conceived by Mandela more than a decade ago, will employ 150 pediatric doctors and 450 nurses.
“There are only four other hospitals in Africa to serve nearly 450 million children,” said Sibongile Mkhabela, chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust. “Millions of these children suffer from life-threatening illnesses and have little or no chance of receiving the care they need.”
FILE - This Nov. 29, 2003 file photo shows former South African President Nelson Mandela, left, kissing U.S. singer Beyonce Knowles, at the Nelson Mandela AIDS Benefit Concert in Cape Town, South Africa. Heroic in his deeds, graceful in his manner, sainted in his image, Nelson Mandela long served as both cause and muse in the entertainment community. From the 1960s, when he was a political prisoner and South Africa was under the laws of apartheid, right up to recent times, when the racist laws of the land had fallen and he was among the world’s most admired people, Mandela inspired concerts, songs, poems, fiction and movies. (AP Photo/file)
This Nov. 29, 2003 file photo shows former South African President Nelson Mandela, left, kissing U.S. singer Beyonce Knowles, at the Nelson Mandela AIDS Benefit Concert in Cape Town, South Africa. Heroic in his deeds, graceful in his manner, sainted in his image, Nelson Mandela long served as both cause and muse in the entertainment community. From the 1960s, when he was a political prisoner and South Africa was under the laws of apartheid, right up to recent times, when the racist laws of the land had fallen and he was among the world’s most admired people, Mandela inspired concerts, songs, poems, fiction and movies. (AP Photo/file)

Mandela’s “love for children was deep,” Mkhabela said. “When you brought a child in to the room, his eyes lit up. This hospital will be part of his legacy.”
The hospital is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and will provide child-centered treatment for cancer, kidney, brain, lung and heart ailments. Video equipment has been installed in the operating rooms to send live broadcasts of surgeries to educate doctors in remote areas across southern Africa.

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