Fundraising for Hospice Africa

Hi and welcome to our blog. Thank you for your generous donations.

As you may know ,we came to Uganda in July  to work for Hospice Africa Uganda. It is the model hospice for Palliative Care in Sub Saharan Africa. Founded by Anne Merriman 16 years ago, Hospice Africa has changed the face of palliative care in Africa. Hospice Africa now has 3 hospice sites in Uganda. It has trained hundreds of health care workers in Palliative Care. Hospice was instrumental in establishing the Palliative Care Association of Uganda and the African Palliative Care Association. Hospice also supports many palliative care programmes across Africa. Through the advocacy of Dr. Merriman and her colleagues, Uganda has become the first country in the world where nurses can prescribe oral morphine after completing specialised training. This is necessary because there are currently too few doctors in Uganda to treat the hundreds of thousands of patients who are in need of palliative care.

Cliona joined the clinical team as a palliative care doctor. The clinical team in Hospice treats patients who are suffering from life limiting diseases. The majority of the patients have HIV/AIDS or cancer or a combination of both.

Tomas spent his time working on projects large and small with Dr. Merriman and her international programmes team. They aim to increase the availability of palliative care throughout Africa through education, advocacy and mentoring.

Many of you have kindly contributed money to support this excellent cause. As of December 21st you have raised over 9,000 Eur which is approximately $13,500. Our online donation site can be accessed by clicking here.

Below is a breakdown of how we intend to spend the money raised.

• $4,000 to pay for morphine and other drugs for three months. This will benefit over 1,000 patients each month.
• $3,000 scholarship for a 1 year diploma in Palliative Care This will allow the beneficiary to qualify as a prescriber of oral morphine and therefore reach many more patients.
• $3,000 seed money to assist with the establishment of a model hospice for Francophone Africa. Feasibility studies are already underway by the International team in Hospice to identify where the new model hospice will be established.
• $1,000 seed money for the establishment of palliative care services in Khartoum, Sudan. We have met the Radiotherapy Oncologist who will be spearheading the effort and we believe that she has the “fire in the belly” to make it work. The new programme is scheduled to be up and running within the next couple of months.
• $1,000 towards the Hospice comfort fund. This money helps patients and their families pay for basic necessities like transport, blankets, food and funeral expenses.
• The remaining money will be left in a secure account to be allocated at a future date.We will update this blog periodically to let you know how the money is being spent and the benefit it is having for patients throughout Uganda and Africa.

We have included some photographs below of the patients at the recent Christmas party in Mobile Hospice Mbarara and also a picture of Cliona on a home visit with one of Hospice’s patients.

We would like to thank you all for your generosity and support.

Cliona and Tomas