Danone Clover CHOC House brings hope to Pretoria

Pretoria came alive on Tuesday 21 August with the official opening of the Pretoria Danone Clover CHOC House. The city now boasts far more than jacarandas and historic buildings. It also includes something of much greater importance to children with childhood cancer – a Danone Clover CHOC House.

This gift from Danone Clover is a sanctuary for children being treated for cancer. It is a place where, with a parent or guardian, they can find clean, free accommodation and meals.

Why is this so important? In short, it can make all the difference.

For a start, many families simply cannot afford to travel back and forth between home and hospital, and specialist treatment centres provide therapy only to outpatients.

Secondly, therapy is very stressful for the patient, unbearably so if a parent of the loved one is not present. Which is why Danone Clover CHOC Houses accommodate parents too.

Another crucial point is this. Therapy generally weakens the body's immune system, leaving the patient open to chance infections. Children do far better if they can stay in a clean and healthy environment while they are being treated.

Fourthly, everybody who stays at a Danone Clover CHOC House has the caring support of the CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation. This non-profit body of volunteers gives much needed support to parents of children with cancer, helping them through the trauma and teaching them how to cope.

CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation also helps educate people about cancer in children and how to spot it early. This education is also a key part of Danone Clover's annual ‘Caring for our children campaign,' which has led to the gift of R1,6 million to pay for the Danone Clover CHOC House for Pretoria.

Without this education, a lot more children would die of cancer. Every year, about 800 new cases are diagnosed, but another 800 or more go undiagnosed or wrongly diagnosed. In most cases, treatment is completely successful, if it is started early enough. In other words, parents, teachers and family doctors simply have to get to know what the early warning signs are.

In short, Danone Clover's annual ‘Caring for our children' campaign is making a much-appreciated difference to communities all over the country. This year, six cents of every Danone Clover yoghurt, drinking yoghurt, yoghurt juice blend and maas product bought during the winter months of June and July was generously donated by Danone Clover to CHOC, to purchase the Danone Clover CHOC house in Pretoria.

The first Danone Clover CHOC House was established in Bloemfontein and remains a huge success. In 2005, the efforts financed the second Danone Clover CHOC House, in Soweto. Last year the result was a third sanctuary, in Cape Town.

The Danone Clover CHOC Houses in Bloemfontein, Soweto and Cape Town are bright and cheerful places, helping families share their battles to make their children well again. Pretoria's Danone Clover CHOC House will do the same.

The opening of the Danone Clover CHOC House in Pretoria turned into a real celebration thanks to the attendance of so many celebrities. They included Gerry Rantseli, Bruce Fordyce, Amor Vittone, Gary Bailey, Ryan Laatz, Marius Roberts, Baby Jake Matlala and Emmanuel Castis who performed with his jazz band – Emmanuel Castis and Then Some. The occasion also delighted the first children to stay at Pretoria's Danone Clover CHOC House when Danone Clover employees unveiled the beautifully decorated and furnished rooms. Live links with Metro FM ensured that listeners shared the festivities of the day.