Dear Friends,
Hospice Africa Uganda was catapulted in the New Year 2004 with many new challenges as well as renewed commitment to help the terminally ill and their families. Hospice has bravely continued to offer
services even when the financial future has been uncertain. As communicated in the previous letter we are now operating with funds from DANIDA and finalizing funding details with USAID, two big
local donors here in Kampala. We feel privileged that such donors have recognized Hospice's role and contribution in the delivery of and training for palliative care in Uganda.
This has given us confidence that God will give us the necessary resources for this work as the need arises. We want
to thank all of you who have prayed for Hospice and contributed resources that have kept us afloat during that uncertain period. To our pleasure and sometimes consternation the demand for palliative
care services and training continue to grow and we are beginning to feel stretched as we try to meet the need.
It is gratifying, also, to see Hospice increasing the network and partnership with other sister organizations such as
Mildmay International, Mulago Teaching and Referral Hospital, Makerere University and The AIDS Support Organization (TASO). Many of our friends will be delighted to know that through such efforts
the statute has been changed now permitting nurses and Clinical Officers, trained in palliative care to prescribe oral morphine in their own right (without being covered by a doctor). This has been
signed by the Minister of Health and is another first for Uganda on the African scene. This will increase the number of prescribers in the country with the addition of clinical palliative care Nurses
and Clinical Officers, able to control patients' pain and other symptoms especially at home. This Statute will boost the morale of the nurses who have already been trained and have gained
experience in handling those with incurable illness during their hour of need. The change of statute indicates Government's confidence in the expertise of Hospice trained Nurses. Negotiations
are still going on to have the Clinical Palliative Care Course (CPCC) for Nurses and Clinical Officers registered by the Nursing Council. We have recruited Catherine Owullu, a Nurse-Tutor, well
experienced with our Ministry of Health, to advocate for nurses in palliative care and this course registration will be one of her initial tasks.
Invitations from other African countries continue to come and Drs Anne and Jagwe travelled to Lusaka, Zambia in the
last week of February 2004 to assist one of our palliative care trainees in the DLD programme scale up palliative care and the availability of oral morphine in that country. Two of our nurses, Berna
and Mwazi travelled to Tanzania during the same period to provide technical support and support supervision to palliative care teams at Ocean Road Cancer Institute and PASADA. We are encouraged
that these teams are delivering services to the terminally ill around Dar-Es-Salaam in spite of many constraints such as transport for the home care teams. More invitations have come in from Botswana
and Ghana and we are preparing a response.
Other responsibilities have been taken on, as Uganda takes a lead in preparing a new African edition of the book A Clinical
Guide to Supportive & Palliative Care for HIV/AIDS. This book originally published in US and edited by Joseph F. O'Neill, MD, MPH et al in 2003, is a first. There are several Ugandans
from different palliative care teams writing as primary or secondary authors with colleagues from S Africa and other countries in Africa. Many of our Hospice team are involved.
Also APCA (African Palliative Care Association, has opened its first office in Fazal House at Hospice in Makindye with
the first employee, Maureen Asiimwe, secretary to the association. There is much hard work to be done as the first General Assembly and Conference takes place from 1 – 5 June in Arusha. It
will also be a meeting of palliative care experts from several continents but will be mainly for African participants. The steering committee are from 5 different African countries, S Africa, Zimbabwe,
Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, and are working hard to make this meeting a success. We look forward to meeting with many friends in Arusha in June.
So with rapid developments both in Uganda and in Africa, with the spread of palliative care and peace to those in greatest
need, we go forward with renewed joy to share with you the joys of Easter.
God Bless you all.
Ekie and the Hospice team
