September, 2022
A half and half kind of trip, we returned this month to Naggalama to travel the villages and see palliative care patients, but this time we spent time in the capital city of Kampala at the 7th International African Palliative Care Conference, a once every three year event, this time conveniently for us in Uganda.  As I've said before, Naggalama is only 35 Kms from Kampala, but a million miles away.  In every metric imaginable, the rural communities and the urban setting are so different from each other; it is a culture shock traveling from one to the other.  
In the villages, it was great to see how the palliative care (PC) team has weathered the pandemic through all kinds of obstacles, continue to care for the suffering patients that don't have ready access to healthcare services.  But also it was great to get an opportunity to present our educational curriculum that we have been developing over the last few years to an international audience and receiving wonderful feedback and making partnerships to disseminate our work to many countries.
And the biggest surprise at the conference was when the St. Francis Naggalama Palliative Care program was recognized for “Contribution to Improving Access to Palliative Care Services in Africa”, this little hospital in rural Africa sharing the honor with large national and international service organizations.  We are so proud of Prossy and her team for becoming a resource for doctors, nurses and palliative care organizations from around the world to learn about sustainable delivery of PC in under-resourced areas. 
Here are some pictures from this trip: