2014; Volume 15, No 2, February

Message from the Chair and Executive Director

Dear Readers,

This month marks several important events in the international agenda:

Palliative Care Resolution

On January 23, 2014 the World Health Organization Executive Board in Geneva passed a historic resolution urging member states to strengthen palliative care “as a component of integrated treatment within the continuum of care.” This edition of the newsletter includes an announcement from Dr Katherine Pettus, describing the impact of this resolution and a link to the WHO document. Many thanks to all the countries who sponsored the resolution. We are proud of having been part of the team helping and providing support and advice, along with several other international and regional organizations. Congratulations to all!

Members’ Recognition Winners

As many of you know, October is our Affiliates’ Recognition Month when we generate awareness and understanding of the vital function that our members play in the advancement of our mission and we recognize them for their support. As part of this recognition, we have given two prizes in the following categories:

  1. Recognizing Loyalty: to maintain the loyalty of members by giving a prize to individual and institutions who keep their membership active. The winner of this category was Dr. Marija Inesa Poniskaitiene, a physician in Palliative Care Department of Kaunas Nursing Hospital in Lithuania. Her name was randomly selected from members who have been active for more than 3 straight years. Dr. Poniskaitiene has been an IAHPC loyal member for more than 10 years!!
  2. Increasing Membership: to increase the number of members by giving a prize to individuals who bring the highest number of new or renewed members. Ms. Grace Kivumbi, from Uganda, won this prize for her help provided in recruiting new members during the African Palliative Care Association and the PC Association of Uganda Conferences.

Congratulations to Doctor Poniskaitiene and Ms. Kivumbi for their selection and many thanks again for their support. Their bios and photos are included in this Newsletter.

Traveling Scholarship

This past month we gave several grants from the Traveling Scholarship program to the individuals listed in this newsletter. However we wish to highlight that the following individuals were given scholarships to attend the VII Congress of the Latin American Association for Palliative Care (ALCP for its acronym in Spanish) in Medellin, Colombia:

The ALCP holds the Congress every two years – the Congress brings together palliative care workers and volunteers from all over Latin America and other regions of the world. We both have plans to be there and participate actively. Additional information about the congress including registration and the congress program is available here.

Until next month,

Lukas Radbruch, MD
Chair, Board of Directors

Liliana De Lima, MHA
Executive Director

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