Did you know that 86% of the world population do not have access to palliative care/end-of-life care? Without the proper support, many patients die lonely and painful deaths, yet this is often preventable through palliative care initiatives.
We are working in Rwanda in collaboration with a community based palliative care organisation to help support the scale up and delivery of home-based palliative care so that the last months of an end-of-life patient is free from pain, suffering and loneliness. This includes:
- Supporting vulnerable families with healthcare through a holistic approach, including medical insurance, transport, monthly food packages and educational support for dependent children.
- Providing financial support to employ qualified full-time nursing staff, including specialists.
- Providing long term training to support 35 community based volunteer healthcare workers and medical personnel.
Sadia's Story
She lost her parents to genocide at the age of 2. Her life was constantly uprooted, moving between different adoptive families. At the age of 28, she was diagnosed with a chronic illness and the entire burden of care fell on her only brother. This is Sadia’s story.
In 1994, Sadia’s parents were killed in the Rwandan Genocide. After this, both her and her brother Musa were passed around between different adoptive families until adulthood. Finally, aged 28, she began living in a rented house with her brother. Yet that very same year, Sadia was diagnosed with chronic systemic lupus and vulvar heart disease and was admitted to the hospital two years later after a series of complications. Before this, she was already a regular at the hospital, travelling to appointments for check ups and morphine injections, but was unable to receive more holistic care. Her brother trained as a mechanic and began to support her as best as he could, but his income was restricted by time, as he was Sadia’s sole caregiver.
“[Thanks to the Doctors Worldwide team] my pain levels have gone down and I no longer have to visit the hospital for the morphine injections.”
Through your support, our Palliative Care team is now able to provide the holistic care she needs, monitoring Sadia’s symptoms as well as providing her with nutritious food packages, medicines, medical insurance, transport support and both psychosocial and spiritual support for both her and her brother. Your donations also meant the team were able to rent her a pulse oximeter, which has significantly reduced the number of hospital visits she has to travel to.
If you are currently observing Ramadan this month, visit our dedicated landing page, distribute your donations automatically over the last ten nights of the month (Zakat eligible), or donate your Zakat to our Most in Need fund today.
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