Advocacy
March 2008

The strategic objective of Hospice Africa (HA) is to establish an effective advocacy programme for palliative care in Uganda and sub-Saharan Africa. As advocacy is cross cutting, each member of the teams in all three Hospices is a witness to advocacy for patients and families in many situations occurring daily in their own lives.

The Advocacy Team:

• Ms. Catherine Iwollu, Senior Nurse Advocate (SNA)
• Dr. Jack Jagwe, Senior Advisor in National Policy (SANP)
• Ms. Manjit Kaur, Senior HIV/AIDS Policy & Technical Advisor (SAPTA)
• Dr. Anne Merriman, Director for Policy and International Programmes (DPIP)
  

HA Advocacy Beyond the Borders
Advocacy has taken a big leap in 2008. Our support organisations have been meeting regularly and the plans for our first support office outside of Uganda for Hospice Africa were launched at the AGMs in Ireland and Liverpool in June 2007 and Hospice Africa Ireland (HAI) was opened in May 2008.

It was decided that all our support organisations throughout the world will use our original name, Hospice Africa. This name is to be used because our overall objective in the Hospice Africa UK constitution, written in 1992, is to support the provision of palliative care throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. It was only in 1993, after the feasibility study, that Uganda was chosen as the model. The report below is for Hospice Africa Uganda, but we thought that readers would be interested in the history and the recent change of direction now being taken.

So Hospice Africa (HA) now includes the following support organisations: HA United Kingdom (1993), HA Uganda - the model for Africa (1994), HA Ireland (1999), HA United States (2006) and HA Australia (in the pipeline).

The office in Dublin is kindly provided by Harold’s Cross Hospice, long time friends and supporters of Hospice Africa Uganda. We are extremely grateful to them. The steering group of the HAI Board has met regularly to put all in place for this new venture, and we are very grateful to each and everyone of them for the work they have been putting in at many fronts during 2008.

International advocacy and donor support will be a large part of the work of the Dublin Office. This office will work within Ireland but will also share knowledge and experiences with the other groups in UK, US and Australia (which is currently being set up). These groups support our work and liaise with volunteers from their respective countries, and also raise funds for the model in Uganda as well as hospices in other Africa countries.

Advocacy in HAU
Advocacy from Hospice Africa Uganda (HAU) extends to patients and families, communities, NGOs, Government agencies and Ministries (especially Ministry of Health). All members of HAU are ambassadors for the messages of palliative care wherever they work.

Advocacy also extends to our friends and colleagues throughout Africa through the third objective, and increasingly to the rest of the world, who are interested in the progress of this work begun in 1993 and now reaching throughout Africa.

Overall yearly advocacy functions for 2007 and 2008 included the three yearly AGMs in Uganda, UK and Ireland (attended by Nina and Anne); sponsored walks in Kampala and Hoima in Uganda; the Uganda Hospice week in May; HAU’s memorial service in November; and Christmas celebrations for patients and their families. These are discussed in this report.