By Grace Kivumbi | Project Administrator
To all our donors and supporters,
We take this opportunity to thank all of you who have contributed generously to our “Bringing hope” campaign, every donation makes a difference in the lives of the patients and families under our care.
We bring you some updates of our work over the past 12 weeks.
Patient and family care
Our multidisciplinary team has provided care to 102 patients, through relief of pain and symptoms as well as providing social, psychological, spiritual and practical support through our dedicated team of volunteers. Please read Dx’s story about hope that has been restored.
Dx is a 17-year-old female diagnosed with cancer of the breast and admitted in the Uganda Cancer Institute. She comes from the western part of Uganda and is being cared for and supported by her father and sister, she came in hospital after a social media campaign and Radio talk shows about cancer in their community.
She has spent three months in the hospital where she has been receiving chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments respectively.
She was referred to the palliative care team by the primary doctors on the ward because she was going through a lot of pain and would cry the whole day and night and have sleepless nights.
As a multidisciplinary team the palliative care doctors and nurses were able to visit her and prescribe morphine which helped in relieving her pain and make her as comfortable as possible. The volunteers supported her by visiting her regularly every afternoon by listening to her stories and concerns, praying for her since she has a very strong faith in the lord and supporting her through physical exercises.
She is so grateful for the support and visits that have been made to her by both the palliative care team including the regular visits from the volunteers who have encouraged her, strengthened her by giving in their time to be with her she feels loved and cared for.
“I know this is not a punishment to me! I still love God and he loves me too ……please keep coming to check on me you are part of my family”
Sharing our Research
The team has been involved in international partnerships and collaborations and sharing, we have had representation at the European Association of Palliative Care conference (2019) 22nd-25thMay 2019 and our Clinical lead Dr. Elizabeth Namukwaya received a scholarship from the International Association of Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) to attend the conference in Berlin. Several presentations were given on the work of the team in Uganda including the following:
Working with the refugee communities in Northern Uganda
Uganda is host to over a million refugees and is aligning health sector and refugee health planning. Working with our partners Cairdeas International Palliative care Trust and Peace Hospice Adjumani we have completed a project on Integration of palliative care into health care provision for South Sudanese refugees in Adjumani District, Uganda through a grant from THET. Through this project we have been able to establish baseline needs through a Rapid Systems Appraisal and household needs assessment which was then followed by a training programme to build capacity for effective planning for chronic disease and palliative care integration. This has included mobilization and training of VHTs to identify, support and patients living with chronic diseases in the refugee communities and training for family carer givers as well. We are sharing the results of this project both locally and internationally and we have just won a prize for the best poster at the EAPC conference May 2019.
Our partner Peace Hospice in Adjumani says……..
“Am not only a palliative care specialist, but an advocate, researcher, presenter, trainer, mentor, a coach, multi skilled person due to this project which makes me feel ‘’ I am an international figure’ ’what amazing gift in only one years’ time" Vicky Opia, Peace Hospice Adjumani
Sharing knowledge through Education and training
Hosting clinical placements is part of our Education and training programme, we host students from Makerere University and other universities in Uganda, Institute of Hospice and Palliative care and from other countries from within Africa and beyond who come to learn from us.
Cate Nakibuka a student on the Bsc. Palliative care leaves us with a word of encouragement after her 4 week placement with the team.
“I am grateful for working with the Palliative care team of Makerere/Mulago. You are very social, we shared a lot with you and when I had my social issues you counselled me nicely. You have taught me how to manage complex pain, I have learnt the skills in therapeutic communication and breaking of bad news to patients and families and I hope to pass on this knowledge to others. May God bless you”
Thank you for reading, please look out for more updates about our work in October!
“Transforming lives, changing systems and bringing hope”
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser