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  • Writer's pictureAnnieHartley

Wet Blankets

Updated: Sep 18, 2022

When the sun comes out during the rainy season at Tintswalo hospital, dripping blankets, mattresses, and bandaged limbs start emerging from the windows. The sleeves of sodden hospital gowns are splayed across the trees.

Their owners sit between puddles and watch them steam off to an acceptable level of dampness...before the next storm rolls in and the entire process starts over again.

Hospitals need to be watertight for very obvious reasons.

Tintswalo is not and the result is not only miserable and degrading but downright dangerous.

👆You are likely to feel quite uncomfortable being immobilised on this bed, with electricity pulsing through the wet ceiling to the lights while the rain streams down the walls...

🙄 🌊⚡️...🔥


👆...and you would likely feel even more uncomfortable when the above mentioned rotten ceiling falls directly on top of you 🤕 (Yes. This actually happened...)


Wet mattresses and blankets are not just an inconvenience...they allow bacteria to seep into carefully bandaged wounds, they macerate elderly skin into bedsores, and they create a nauseating miasma that keeps patients from their food.


👆Our staff have better things to do than sweeping the Sisyphean rainwater out of their wards.


You may remember that we successfully waterproofed the emergency unit (again, thanks 100% to your micro-donations)...its been over 400 days since then and it is going strong 💪!

However, there are 423 beds in the in-patient department that are not so lucky.


I am simply thrilled to announce that our desperate pleas have been heard.

We have received a donation to FIX THE ROOFS! 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍


Yet another complete stranger has seen the potential of Tintswalo Hospital to be a beacon of #excellenceinruralhealthcare


YOU can join in too 🫵.

Adopt a project that saves lives and protects the dignity of this wonderful community.

It's easy.


Contact me at hartley.annie@gmail.com to find out more.


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