Cartoon family soothes wary children
THERE are no grey walls, bland mass-produced artwork or institutional signs in this hospital.
Instead, a family of colourful cartoon characters adorn the hallways of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital. Their job is to put sick children at ease and help them understand the treatment they are receiving.
The “family” painted on the walls consists of seven characters selected from the faces on the hospital logo, which was designed in 2009 by Vega School of Design students.
“We wanted a fun way of simplifying children’s language for them to understand,” said Michelle Foster, the head of interior design at the hospital.
The characters include Nurse Thando, who represents the nurses who will take care of the children, and Mkhulu Khaya, who is the head of the family and represents wisdom. “He will be our storytelling character and his stories start with ‘In my day . . .’,” said Foster.
Another character, Wally, is full of fun and always up for a game. He is often painted hanging from the ceiling. Other characters are Princess Lulu, Sammy, Super Doc and Tumi.
Foster said there were plans to make an animated video with the characters, so that they could communicate with the children verbally.
“We wanted characters that could speak with different tones and spread positive information to the children. The characters will assist when a child goes for an operation and reads positive messages from the characters on the walls to make them feel OK.”
Other walls are covered in Seshweshwe print-inspired wallpaper. The colours represent Africa’s natural resources — yellow for the sun, blue for the sky, orange for the mountains and green for leaves.
Children’s drawings were given to artists to incorporate into the design.
Foster said that having children’s input in the design of the wallpaper helped the designers see how different the world is from a child’s perspective.
“Their world is uncomplicated but literal and that’s why we had a children’s psychologist assist with all of this.” LITTLE HELPERS: The cartoon family painted on a wall of the general day ward STUDIO equipment from Britain is due to arrive at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital tomorrow for next week’s launch of Radio Lollipop.
The radio station — started in 1979 by South Africa-born Brit Hedley Finn — broadcasts in hospitals in 31 countries and is aimed at comforting sick children and helping them heal.
Finn said the station was initially meant to be one-off project at Queen Mary’s Hospital for Children in England.
But in just one of its successes, a child emerged from a coma wanting to speak on the interactive station about the songs, competitions and games he had heard while “asleep”.
Finn said the experience had made him realise just how vital music was to sick people.
The station broadcasts from 6pm to 9pm and is run by 1 750 volunteers worldwide.
Finn said Radio Lollipop was a tool for play, with volunteers, health professionals, patients and parents interacting on air.
At 6pm, children who are well enough to get out of bed queued outside the stations to go on radio, Finn said.
During the day, there would be two music stations available to the hospital’s patients — one for older children and the other playing classical music and nursery rhymes for toddlers and moms. — Katharine Child