Wings & Wishes was established in 2006 after a group of employees from Coca-Cola Sabco (Pty) Ltd identified the need in their community and started donating their frequent flyer miles as part of an internal Corporate Social Responsibility initiative. The miles were committed to facilitating the transport of critically ill children and an accompanying adult to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, or an alternative appropriate medical facility, for treatment.

The program is now a registered project under The Coca-Cola Sabco Community Foundation (IT 60/2007) and is run primarily by employee volunteers. The program is funded entirely through donations and is supported by many individuals and organisations in South Africa. As word of the program spreads, requests for flights and bus tickets are a daily occurrence and we are now assisting at least one child a day.

Purpose, Vision and Values

Core Purpose:

Dedicated to transporting critically ill children to receive life saving medical treatment.

Vision:

Transport should never be a barrier for a child to reach life saving treatment, wherever they live.

Core Values:

Compassion, Minimal bureaucracy, Integrity

We undertake to provide compassionate support immediately, with minimal bureaucracy, whilst maintaining the highest levels of integrity for the children and their families.

Criteria

We assist children who do not have access to the required specialised medical treatment in their home towns and whose families would not otherwise be able to afford the transport to get them to a suitable medical facility.

We also require written motivation from a medical practitioner explaining that the treatment required is not available at a local institution.