By Denis Turyahebwa & Samuel Opio
KCCA FC and Onduparaka FC have partnered with Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU) to organize a fundraising drive to support New Life Hospice Arua (NELIHA) to establish a permanent home in Arua.
KCCA will host Onduparaka in the first leg at Lugogo in Kampala on Saturday 16th June, 2018 and then travel to the Green Light Stadium in Arua in the return leg on Saturday 30th June, 2018 two weeks after the first leg.
The two games are expected to raise Ush.500M which is the estimated cost if establishing the first building for NELIHA with its facilities. The building will house a patient’s room, three office rooms, and a hostel capacity for at least 20 cancer patients receiving treatment at Arua Referral Hospital and patients in transit after referral to Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI).
Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of patients and their families facing problems associated with life threatening illnesses. Improvement comes through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and assessment and treatment of pain and other problems physical, psychological and spiritual.
In Uganda, Palliative care services started in 1993 with the establishment of Hospice Africa Uganda and then later there was formation of PCAU which works in conjunction with the ministry of health to initiate and scale up palliative care provision. PCAU is the membership organisation for all Palliative care providers in Uganda both organisational and individual.
