Our Three Paths Approach


Education

Medical Care

Information Technology

Education

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Palliative Care for Uganda (PCFU) recognizes that continued education of local healthcare providers is paramount to its mission of providing palliative care to the people of Uganda.  While initially this involved giving lectures and one-on-one demonstrations to local physicians and nurses on principles of palliative care, as time went on, we realized the need for farther reaching techniques to train healthcare workers to be able to provide self-sufficient and self-sustaining palliative care to the local population, both rural and urban. 

In the past few years, PCFU has been developing a multi-media educational curriculum using video clips from actual palliative care encounters between our Ugandan team of experts and Ugandan patients in order to educate local healthcare workers in several principles of palliative care.  Working closely with the documentary filmmaker Lucy Bruell, PCFU created several video-based modules that can be used in educational settings such as medical schools, nursing schools, and hospitals.  Work is ongoing to include more topics to be covered by the curriculum.   In order to disseminate this educational program, we have partnered with Pan African and Ugandan palliative care organizations such as The African Palliative Care Association and Hospice Africa Uganda that have the infrastructure to reach as many nurses and doctors on as broad a scale as possible.   The first pilot study of the modules was carried out in 2018 and was a huge success.  With further collaborations with academic medical centers within and outside of Uganda being strengthened, we hope to distribute this program to other countries in Africa in the coming years.

With the support of its donors, PCFU is able to provide all of this free of charge to these educational institutions in these under-resourced settings. 

Technology

Bringing  medical and information technology to rural Africa can be a difficult process, but Palliative Care For Uganda feels that it is crucial to the success of their mission.  
The reliability of internet access in the out of the way areas has been hampered by a sub-optimal infrastructure.  Frequent electrical outages and spotty cellular coverage is the norm in these areas.  Palliative Care For Uganda has been instrumental in bringing in reliable internet service to this area through its partnering with internet providers in Uganda.   With dependable internet service, the other two paths to excellence, education and medical care, are both greatly enhanced.  On-line access to medical information, conferences, and email capability have helped bring medical expertise to this under-served area. 

Medical Care

Donations, medications  and medical supplies are obtained in the U.S. and  through reliable medical suppliers in Africa and hand delivered to our center of operations in Uganda at the St. Frances Naggalama Hospital.  These medications and supplies are used solely for the patients served by Palliative Care For Uganda. 
Developing and maintaining partnerships  with other organizations advances the care of patients in this part of Uganda by keeping a steady supply of necessary medicines and equipment.