OUR BLOG
Since 2016, PCAU Members Annual Get-together Dinner has been a tradition honoring our commitment to palliative care in Uganda. This year's Silver Jubilee Dinner marks a special milestone as we celebrate 25 years of dedicated service.
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Dear PCAU Members and Friends,
Thank you for your continued support of the work of palliative care in Uganda. As we head to the last quarter of 2024, I appreciate your compassion as palliative care providers across Uganda partners and donors.
Access to medical supplies is a major challenge for many economically disadvantaged patients in Uganda. Patients with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses are faced with co-morbidities resulting from the side effects of the medications and disease progression on their journey of care.
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The Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU) on 9th July 2024 donated specific essential medical sundries to its member organizations including Little Hospice Hoima, New Life Hospice Arua, Lweza Community Health Programme, SD Cancer and Palliative Care Clinic Jinja, Kitovu Mobile, and Kabale Christian Care.
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This year, PCAU celebrates 25 years since its founding in 1999. The organization has been at the forefront of all hospice and palliative care development in Uganda. The theme for PCAU’s Silver Jubilee is “Celebrating 25 years of extending compassion, holistic care, pain relief, hope, and justice to individuals and families in Uganda”
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Thank you for attending the 25th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on May 30, 2024. We were glad to host you all. We had 174 members and guests at the AGM. We had booked space for only 150 at the Fairway Hotel Kampala, but we are glad we had room for all. Among the Duruma ethnic group who live in Kenya our neighboring country, they have this proverb: ‘’A small house will hold a hundred friends.’’ We had a full room, yet we enjoyed each other's company.
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The Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU) launched a groundbreaking mobile Health (mHealth) Palliative Care Surveillance program in 2015, initially spanning four health facilities. Utilizing Android smartphones and the Open Data Kit (ODK) application, the initiative aimed to collect aggregated data on palliative care service provision, facilitating informed decision-making, advocacy, research, and policy formulation.
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Apart from our commitment to integrating palliative care into Uganda’s Health Care System, the Ministry of Health introduced specialized data collection tools integrated into the Health Management Information System (HMIS). These tools address the limitations of previous indicators, providing invaluable insights for policy formulation, decision-making, and research in palliative care.
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How help came to a very sick mother with her seemingly dying baby and her other 2 children:
In 2022, a community volunteer in southwestern Uganda was concerned about the plight of a dying baby with her mother who lived in a small makeshift. The two lived with two other young children in a very impoverished family of four people. The community volunteer approached the palliative care team at Kitagata Hospital for help. The Hospital is located about 3 miles from the village where the venerable family lives.
Dear PCAU Members and Friends, Thank you so much for your continued support and connection with PCAU. Please receive our 1st quarter 2024 newsletter. We are most excited about our plans for this year as we celebrate 25 years of PCAU. I encourage you all to renew your membership and commit to supporting PCAU. As we celebrate 25 years, we take stock of how our focused investment has yielded compassion, holistic care, pain-relief, comfort, hope, and justice for individuals, families, and Ugandan communities.
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From March 1st – 3rd this year, we joined Rotary Clubs in Uganda for their Rotary Northern Mega Fellowship which was held in Arua City. They had a captivating theme: "Creating Hope in Palliation." The three days were filled with a spirit of compassion. Over 200 people from over 10 Rotary Clubs gathered and spoke about the main need to relieve pain and suffering among many patients and families faced with life-limiting illnesses.
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On February 25th, 2024, we joined our partners the Uganda Cancer Society for their annual Cancer Sukuma Dance event in Kampala. We were official partners in the event this year. This is an annual fitness, cancer awareness, and fundraising event with a specific theme also to commemorate World Cancer Day. This year the theme was: Restore Smiles, A Breast for Her.
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In 2022, the Ministry of Health passed the Health Management Information System (HMIS) Palliative Care registers and HMIS 105c Monthly Palliative Care reporting forms. This effectively enabled palliative care reporting through the District Health Information System (DHIS2). The approval by the Ministry of Health followed several years of advocacy and support by PCAU on the integration of palliative care data in the HMIS. PCAU Continues to effort to ensure that the over 300 health facilities accredited to offer palliative care across the country receive the required tools and training to report on palliative care.
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When you visit PCAU or when PCAU visits you, there is that one most likely face. The PCAU Driver. He has been the main driver for PCAU since 2012. He has visited every district in the country and continues to be a valuable team member. A team of 3 staff recently had an interview with him. He shared his role and feelings about the new Land Cruiser acquired by PCAU last year.
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Since 1999, we have been hosting quarterly national palliative care meetings in Uganda. The meetings bring together PCAU members, Ministry of Health Officials, Members of Parliament, University Faculty staff, and interested members of the public every three months. The gatherings are important for advocacy, sharing experiences, continuous medical education, and networking.
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In the peri-urban community of Makindye lives Matia (not real name) a middle-aged gentleman with Diabetes Mellitus. Matia usually sits on the veranda of his house shaded from the busking sun in the city these days. Matia had a double amputation from the knees and partial blindness in his eyes due to complications from Diabetes.
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As we share with you an update from PCAU, we would like to encourage you to be thoughtful about the needs of your immediate community and how you could help. We request you consider stepping out to do something thoughtful for someone, for a family, or a group in your community. What is life without caring and sharing? Recently, a Village Health Team Member from Lweza Zone B village asked a family if a team of children and volunteers on our Road to Hope Program could visit.
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The Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU) invites bids from interested bidders for the Sale of 01 used Motor Vehicle with details below; Number plate: UAU 318A, Make: TOYOTA RAV4, Manual Transmission, Model: 1998 HP/CC, Chassis Number: SXA117010262, Year Of Manufacture: 1996, Location Of Vehicle: Kitende Entebbe Road - Kampala.
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The Month of March each year is celebrated as women’s month in many parts of the world featuring International Women’s Day on March 8th. This year, while declaring the Women’s History Month the President of USA said that during this March, “we celebrate the courageous women who have helped our Nation build a fairer, more just society.”
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The Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU) invites applications for a limited number of scholarships for Palliative Care Diploma and Degree Training Programs for the academic year 2024. Application for the PCAU scholarships should have obtained admission from the Training Institutions.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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SHiNE Child Program
As we come together to celebrate the abundance in our lives, let's transform our gratitude into meaningful action. In Uganda, many face life-threatening illnesses without access to palliative care. This Giving Tuesday on the 28th of November, 2023, join the Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU) to bring comfort, support, and dignity to children who are facing sickness and vulnerability together with their impoverished families.
SHiNE Child Program
‘’Our conviction is that we can raise a community of compassionate people to support children from impoverished families who are facing challenging life situations to realize their full potential.’’
Uganda Joins the rest of the world this week to commemorate the WHPCD 2023. The theme of the WHPCD 2023 is Compassionate Communities: Together for Palliative Care.
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