Volume 24, Number 8: August 2023
Kenyan Community Network Began at Home, with Mom
By Stella Rithara
IAHPC Board Member & founder of Ongata Ngong Palliative Care Community, Kenya
I was born and raised in the small village of Bulla Pesa in Isiolo County, Kenya, where I also developed an interest in taking care of elderly persons. During school holidays I helped at the market where my mother worked and I interacted with her age mates.
I have come to accept that everything happens for a reason, and that reason causes change.
My mother saw some quality of a nurse in me by the time I graduated high school; we discussed my future and I entered a college nursing program. As my career in nursing progressed, I came to learn of palliative care. This started my palliative care journey, where I believe I was meant to be.
How a health care service emerged
Whenever I returned home, after my mother retired, I would find her chatting and having a cup of tea with other women her age. She told me that it was their support system. I decided to take care of the elderly in my birth community, where my mother lived. I began by asking my siblings to support the ladies, and Ubora (Swahili for "quality") health care services was realized.
Ubora began with knitting & snacks
We organized monthly meetings at home, where tea and snacks or lunch were provided and ladies chatted and knitted together. Then the focus turned to therapy, where they were invited to share their health and family challenges. Later, we involved social workers, religious leaders, nurses, and a physiotherapist to assist as most of the ladies had health problems, such as diabetes, hypertension, HIV/AIDs, arthritis, and loss of vision and hearing. Mom’s minister conducted a monthly service.
ONPACC team training Community Health Assist. Photo used with permission.
I reached out to friends and colleagues for support, especially during COVID-19. As a result, all ladies were vaccinated and maintained their connection. "Compassionate communities" is an idea that is slowly gaining ground in our country, but is hampered by a lack of jobs in support of elderly persons living at home.
Unfortunately, I lost my mother to COVID in August 2021, but Ubora continues to serve as a compassionate community in its small way. Monthly meetings are held at my mother’s compound despite her absence. And even though I now work in another town, I coordinate the activities and work in partnership with people in the village who support the ladies while they enjoy the support of their peers.
My experience working in the resource-poor setting of Kenya has taught me that palliative care is not just for patients with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions alone, but is for the community at large.
Breast Cancer: How We Inform
& Support Women
I began a breast cancer support group, Nyotto Fitti, in 2004 when my aunt was diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer. I decided that the community needed to learn about self-examination and the benefit of early referrals; I started by teaching men and women after church.
We are now a team of palliative care nurses, a counselor, and breast cancer survivors, educating communities in different counties after services on Sunday or through organized women groups. Nyotto Fitti also runs support groups for those with advanced breast cancer, so that they can walk the journey together.
As a member of ABC Global Alliance, I have learned so much about supporting these ladies.
A widespread community service: ONPACC
Health care professionals and caregivers came together and decided that the best way to support the community is through an organization that provides education, creates awareness, handles referrals, and does palliation. Ongata Ngong Palliative Care Community (ONPACC) was founded to do all this, as well as improve awareness among health care providers and the public on the benefits of palliative care.
Many believe that palliative care is related solely to cancer care. To counteract this misconception, we met with community gatekeepers: pastors, elders, and chiefs. The communities believe in them, and therefore follows their instructions closely.
Volunteers & social network
provide what's needed
We have created palliative care in the community, thanks to Hospice Care Kenya-UK training grants for community health volunteers. I am currently working with the Maasai community in partnership with the local Kajiado West government on a referral system in support of the sick.
ONPACC is fully staffed by volunteers. Social networking is key: when we need to visit a patient, family and friends offer transport, food, and palliative medicine, while counselors offer their services. We have been walking with friends like Nairobi Hospice, which supplies us with opioids and other medicines. Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association (KEHPCA) has been a supporter from the start.
I wake up with palliative care, walk with palliative care, teach palliative care, and spread the beauty of palliative care every day of my life. I don’t know what nursing could be offering if is not palliative nursing. Palliative care is me and I am in palliative care.
Read Stella Rithara's bio.