A small team of volunteers and staff have been bringing comfort to patients in South Africa’s busiest public hospitals for nearly three decades, and the numbers speak for themselves.
When a patient lies alone in a public hospital ward, far from family, facing an uncertain diagnosis, who sits with them? For over 200,000 South Africans since 2009, the answer has been HospiVision. The Pretoria-based non-profit organisation recently celebrated a remarkable milestone: more than 201,000 patients, families, and healthcare workers supported through their spiritual care and counselling services across multiple public hospitals in Gauteng and the Western Cape.
In 2025 alone, HospiVision reached 45,605 people, a testament to the growing demand for psychosocial support in South Africa’s overstretched healthcare system.
More Than Comfort: Building Futures
But HospiVision’s impact extends far beyond hospital bedsides. At their De La Porte Oasis centre, the organisation runs skills development programmes that are changing lives in tangible ways. In 2025, 131 participants completed training in practical skills including baking, sewing, digital literacy, and needlework—equipping vulnerable community members with tools for employment and self-sufficiency.
Hospivision’s De La Porte Oasis offers Digital, Baking and Sewing Skills Development Programmes.
The organisation also operates a soup kitchen, which is also in part sustained by their vegetable garden, that provided meals to 4,343 people last year, with women making up the majority of beneficiaries at 3,156.
HospiVision offers tea and soup daily to patients with HIV/AIDS, are on ART (Anti-Retro-Viral Therapy). Takalani Marulani, Hospivision’s Coordinator holding bananas from their garden.
Dignity in Death: Caring for the Unclaimed
HospiVision’s commitment to dignity extends even beyond life itself. In partnership with Tshwane District Hospital Mortuary, the organisation facilitated the burial of over 20 unclaimed individuals in 2025—ensuring that those who died without family to claim them were laid to rest with respect and compassion.
Jabulile Shabangu from Hospivision facilitating a burial of unclaimed individuals from Tshwane District Hospital.
Training the Next Generation of Mental Health Professionals
Perhaps most significantly, HospiVision has become a respected training ground for South Africa’s future psychologists. In 2025, 43 candidates were interviewed for clinical psychology master’s internship positions, with 10 being accepted, contributing to the country’s critical need for trained mental health professionals.
Through their partnership with the University of Pretoria, HospiVision offers online courses in spiritual care, pastoral counselling, and trauma support, ensuring that quality care continues for generations to come. They are also launching a 2-year, full-time, NQF Level 5 (QCTO) | SAQA Registered Hospital Chaplaincy Programme—the first of its kind in South Africa. The development of the Hospital Chaplaincy Programme was made possible through the support of Grant 63219 from the John Templeton Foundation.
Johannah Sawa, Luvhengo Tshikovhele, Simphiwe Leshabane and Dr Annemarie Oberholzer with Excel Theological Training Academy who is their partner in offering the Hospital Chaplaincy Programme.
A Model Worth Replicating
Founded in 1997, HospiVision operates on a model that integrates trained volunteers into the public healthcare system, providing a service that government facilities often cannot: the simple, profound act of being present with someone in their most vulnerable moments. “Spiritual care isn’t just about religion,” the organisation explains. “It’s about dignity, hope, and human connection when people need it most.”
As South Africa continues to grapple with healthcare challenges, HospiVision demonstrates what’s possible when compassion meets commitment—one patient, one meal, one skill learned at a time.
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