HospiVision NPO

30/09/2026

The 2026 conference recordings are here!

Missed a session at the Religion and Spirituality in Healthcare Conference? Or want to hear one again? All the talks are now free on YouTube.

Three days. Nearly 30 talks. Researchers, nurses, doctors, chaplains, theologians and traditional healers from across South Africa and beyond, all asking one question: how do we care for the whole person?

Watch the full playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUovfoRMOIhM

Thank you to every speaker, delegate and volunteer who made this conference what it was! A special thank you to our partners, the Africa Centre for Inclusive Health Management and the Faculty of Theology at Stellenbosch University, and to the John Templeton Foundation for making it possible.

Recorded at the Religion and Spirituality in Healthcare Conference 2026: Expanding the Scope of Spiritual Care Research in South African Healthcare, 14 to 16...

23/09/2026

Last week this time the HospiVision conference was winding down. As our partner, we asked CEO Dr Annemarie Oberholzer and marketing/fundraising manager Christél Kloppers to reflect on it and look forward.

Annemarie:
I am truly encouraged by the meaningful discussions. Trying to bring spirituality into healthcare can sometimes feel like a lonely journey because it is often met with resistance or misunderstanding. But this conference reminded me that we are not alone. It was inspiring to see researchers, healthcare professionals, faith leaders and practitioners come together around a shared goal of recognising the spiritual dimension of holistic care. There is a growing community of people who believe that spirituality has an important place in holistic healthcare, and the Africa Centre for Inclusive Health Management plays a key role in this.

Christél:
In ten years I think we'll look back and think "Wow, we had hope, and look how far we've come". We won't have imported healthcare, we'll have built a system that genuinely represents the South African context ‒ one that holds space for all of our people. The broader continental view fits this quite well. HospiVision wants to build a distinctly South African model of spiritual care, as part of a wider African conversation.

Annemarie looks ahead:
For HospiVision, the next priority is to build on this momentum by strengthening the evidence base, expanding training and finding practical ways to integrate spiritual care into healthcare settings. Our association with the Africa Centre for Inclusive Health Management opens exciting possibilities for collaboration across Africa. The conference may be over, but I believe this is only the beginning of an important conversation and a new chapter for spiritual care in African healthcare.

HospiVision NPO Stellenbosch University

21/09/2026

At the HospiVision conference this week, CEO Dr Annemarie Oberholzer asked the panellists at the "From evidence to practice" session: "If we meet again in 2036 and say spiritual care has genuinely become part of healthcare in Africa, what will have had to happen and what should we start doing right now?"

Several inspiring and practical threads came through:

Own an African spirituality: The clearest note was a caution against being "baptised into a European or American understanding of spirituality without noticing it". The decade's work is to keep asking what African spirituality within healthcare looks like and to always keep someone in the room who disagrees ‒ the grain of sand that lets your own pearl form.

Did we do what we said? In ten years the honest first question will be whether we implemented what we planned here, while staying open, so that we come out richer as communities, countries and a continent.

A test at the bedside: Success looks like a patient leaving a healthcare institution being asked whether their spiritual needs were also met. This should be backed by African-centred research and real movement towards integrated care where biomedical, spiritual and traditional providers work together with training and proper referrals.

Embed it, drop the competition: Spiritual care built into health-training curricula and taught with real rigour, delivered by many role players; less rushing for funding or wanting to be seen as "the ones who know", because we're all serving the same humanity.

Stellenbosch University
HospiVision NPO

17/09/2026

Every hospital ward holds people carrying more than their diagnosis. Fear. Isolation. Grief nobody's asked them about yet.

HospiVision's Spiritual Care and Counselling Skills course trains you to walk into that space with real skill, not just good intentions. Four sections, about 12 hours, fully online, covering everything from understanding illness and basic counselling technique through to prayer, presence and pastoral care under pressure.

✅ Online, self-paced
✅ 9 CPSC CPD points
✅ HospiVision Certificate (University of Pretoria certificate optional)

Whether you're a hospital chaplain, a pastoral care volunteer, or a Practitioner who wants to serve the sick well, this one's worth your time.

📧 [email protected] | 📞 +27 12 329 9492 | 🌐 hospivision.org.za

15/09/2026

Excitement loading at the start of the religion and spirituality in healthcare conference!

The interdisciplinary programme features presenters from the fields of theology and pastoral care, nursing (palliative, oncology, emergency and forensic), psychology and counselling, medicine and psychiatry, public health and medical sociology, occupational therapy, speech-language and hearing therapy, social work, medical anthropology, law and traditional health practice. A number of presenters hold two worlds at once: an attorney who is also a traditional healer, a medical doctor running a values-based care programme, a psychiatrist trained in logotherapy, a forensic nurse researching spiritual resilience.

Institutions represented include Stellenbosch University, the University of Pretoria, UKZN, Rhodes, UCT, UNISA, the Durban University of Technology, the University of Ghana, Eswatini Medical Christian University, the South African Theological Seminary, St Luke's Combined Hospices and Groote Schuur Hospital.

As HospiVision's Christél Kloppers says: "What excites us most is who's in the room. Doctors, nurses, psychologists, theologians and traditional healers around one table is exactly the conversation spiritual care in healthcare needs in the South African context. We're expecting inclusive dialogues that people are able to carry back into their wards and communities."

Stellenbosch University
HospiVision NPO

15/09/2026

13/09/2026

Tomorrow's the day! Doors open 07:30- come early, grab a cup of tea or coffee, register and settle in before we start at 08:30 sharp. Stellenbosch Business School, Carl Cronje Drive, Bellville. Joining online? Registrations are still open. Bring your curiosity and an open heart - see you in the morning!

12/09/2026

Two days. Bags almost packed, programme printed, kettle on. Remember, doors open 07:30, so come early for tea or coffee and to register before we start at 08:30. Stellenbosch Business School, Bellville. Can't travel? Online registrations are still open. Three days of research done properly awaits.