On Friday, October 9th the team at Global Partners in Care (GPIC) donned hats and masks to support the International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN) event #HatsOn4CPC – Hats (and Masks) on for Children’s Palliative Care. Every year, on the second Friday in October, ICPCN holds a virtual awareness event highlighting the global need of palliative care for children. This...
More Than Comfort: My Pediatric Palliative Care Journey
John Couri, University of Notre Dame, Junior, GPIC Intern Danny Thomas, the founder of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, said, “No child should die in the dawn of life.” Danny had a dream when he opened the doors of St. Jude in 1962, and it has lived on ever since. When I first reflected on the hopeful words of this...
Remembering Khumbulani on 7th Anniversary of The Rocking Horse Project in Eswatini
While visiting a hospital with a group of ladies from church, Denise Mortlock noticed a group of children in need of extra attention that did not have access to palliative care services. Seeing these children’s situation struck a nerve with Denise, and so began the journey of The Rocking Horse Project (RHP) in Eswatini. Denise, who serves as the executive...
Importance of Education in Palliative Care
In spite of its growing recognition and expansion, the field of palliative care has struggled to reach its full potential in the global context. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the leading deterrents of palliative care growth include a lack of national health policies and systems that include palliative care, limited palliative care training, and barriers to accessing opioids...
HIV/AIDS and COVID-19
When our organization began in 1999, it was in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic sweeping through Sub-Saharan Africa. GPIC partner, Matthew 25 House, began in Ghana in 1998 with a similar mission. HIV is one of the deadliest global public health threats in recent history, having claimed nearly 33 million lives to date. This viral infection attacks the body’s white blood...
Pamoja Twaweza – Together We Can!
Palliative care is unique in its ability to offer a holistic approach to patient care. The capacity to address the patient’s physical, psychosocial, and spiritual needs and adapt to various circumstances makes palliative care special. Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, palliative care providers continue to deliver the best possible care within their communities. These heroes put their...
GPIC’s Disaster Response Fund in Action – Binga District, Zimbabwe
The people of Nsungwale Village in Binga District, Zimbabwe woke up on the morning of February 11th, 2020 to massive destruction and flooded homes due to the incessant rainfall that had been taking place the previous days. This comes on the heels of a series of droughts in 2019 that the World Food Programme said were the country’s worst in...
The Spread of COVID-19 in Africa
The pandemic in Africa is somewhat enigmatic. High numbers of deaths were expected there due to fragile health systems, lack of access to preventive measures, barriers to testing, and potentially vulnerable populations. On May 22, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that Africa reached 100,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. It took the continent 14 weeks to reach this milestone since the first recorded case...
APCA’s Strategy to Combat COVID-19
In March 2020, as the first cases of COVID-19 were reported on the African continent, the African Palliative Care Association (APCA) began implementing a comprehensive communications plan to prevent and manage the spread of the disease. While many of the communications tools were developed to help national palliative care associations disseminate reliable public health information, they didn’t lose sight of...
A Constant in These Uncommon Times
Palliative care isn’t reliant on high-tech interventions. Rather, it’s provided by compassionate health care workers who are trained to provide holistic care to those with life-limiting conditions. As part of our mission, we want to show the human face of global palliative care. By sharing our partners’ experiences we can shed light on the amazing things that people do every...