Dear Friends,
Happy Holidays!
We are in a season of the year to be thoughtful, celebrate family and come together.
Looking at how much we have achieved this year, we cannot help but express our joy and appreciation to you for your membership, friendship, and support to the Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU).
I hope that you all have an incredible time enjoying this wonderful season with your loved ones. I send you my very best wishes for success, happiness, and good health.
The annual PCAU members gathering has now become part of our culture. We are grateful to all who continue to join and support this important advocacy, awareness-raising, and fundraising event. On December 8th, 2023, PCAU hosted the 8th Annual Get-Together and Fundraising Dinner at the Imperial Royal Hotel Kampala. The dinner was the climax event to commemorate 30 years of palliative care services in Uganda.
Words alone cannot express how saddened we were upon receiving the bad news that Dr. Samuel Guma had passed on. We are grateful to all members of the palliative care fraternity in Uganda who came together to stand with the family and the Team at Kawempe Home Care during this time of loss and grieving.
During the 2 days on 14th and 15th Sept 2023 at Speke Resort Munyonyo, at least 450 clinicians, academics, human rights advocates, lawyers, clergy, researchers, social workers, policymakers, MoH officials, and donors gathered. They were from over 40 organizations and 13 countries. Delegates came from Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Ireland, Japan, India, and the USA. The conference was delivered under 6 tracks. We had 19 plenary presentations across 4 plenary sessions, 67 oral breakout presentations, 5 workshops, and 47 poster presentations.
This year 2023 marks 30 years since Dr. Anne Merriman founded Hospice Africa Uganda (HAU) the pioneer stand-alone palliative care facility in Uganda. In the last 30 years, Uganda has registered several milestones for palliative care as access to the service still stands at slightly over 11% for all those in need.
This year, PCAU launched the initiative to create the pioneer compassionate community in Uganda. Our initiative of the compassionate community is rooted in a health promotion approach to palliative care, aiming to support solidarity among community members at the end of life. Its to empower ‘community to support community’. We will raise consciousness among the people of Lweza Zone B in Wakiso district to recognize the power they have and how they can all work together to address the issues of caregiving, grief, and bereavement that affect them. The need for palliative care is universal. PCAU is working with Taibah International School and the Lweza Community Health Program to deliver this important initiative.
By Joyce Zalwango Capacity Building Manager Read brief Stories about our recent activities
The first thing I and the team at Kitagata Hospital saw was the bright and smiling face of a young seven-year-old girl. She guided us into her home where her parents greeted us.
On the surface, she seemed like a happy seven-year-old, but the reality was that she had been battling leukemia for the last three years of her life. Only recently had she gone into remission. This was no small feat, and her family was greatly supported by Project SHiNE, a transport program for pediatric cancer patients run by Kitagata Hospital and supported by the Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU).
Palliative Care Association of Uganda launched a Uganda National Palliative Care Directory. This is an important document profiling the presence of palliative care services in Uganda. Health workers referring patients and families can utilize this to reach colleagues in the respective health facilities.
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