GlobalGivingUK: Introducing Island Hospice Zimbabwe

Since 1979 the multidisciplinary team at Island Hospice has been unconditionally caring; caring and supporting those living with HIV, life threatening illnesses and the bereaved. 

Island Hospice Service 
                      Palliative Care in Zimbabwe

This is probably the oldest charity I will be visiting as part of the GlobalGivingUK Impact Assessment programme and I am particularly excited about Island Hospice because not only are they pioneers and leaders in proving this  unique angle of support in Zimbabwe but they have also managed to create a strong and solid name for themselves. I remember in Primary School we used to have civvies days, these where really exciting days for us and for those of you who may not be aware of what they are; civvies day was one day each term where all the students got to come to school in their own clothes. We had the opportunity to throw out our uniforms for just one day and get all dressed up however we liked. For a child of 6, that was defiantly one of the main highlights of the term but what I also remember was that in order to to wear your civvies everyone had to also come to school with a small fee. The tricky part was always asking my mom or my dad for this money but one advantageous thing about it was that the 'fee' was actually a donation. A donation to charity and one of the main charities my school would support annually was Island Hospice. At the time it wasn't really about charity for me, it was about the showing off all my nice clothes, and I honestly don't remember having known much about Island Hospice. Lucky for me 15 years on, I get to fill in the gaps.

So the first question I asked myself was, "What is palliative care?"

The most comprehensive answer I got was from the World Health Organisation (WHO) that defines it as, " An approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual"

That is a lot to take in and in summary this is also what I extracted from the 'What We Do' page on the Island Hospice website:

• Providing Palliative Care: The core of Island Hospice services is providing comprehensive health care to underserved children.

• Responding to Crisis: Dealing with the aftermath of major disasters, and assessing the impact of catastrophes on high risk, vulnerable children are part of Island Hospice mission.

• Giving a Voice: Island Hospice is a respected, active voice regarding palliative health care in Zimbabwe and beyond

As you can see above there is a lot that comes with this form of care and the services provided by Island Hospice for over 30 years have been impacting and touching  the lives of children and communities all over Zimbabwe. They offer direct palliative care for over 1500 patients each month, approximately 20% of which are children and over 75% of which are infected with HIV. Their comprehensive community bereavement service has also been active in all areas of loss including death, accidents, displacement, disasters, violence and other forms of trauma.

So how do they do it??

As I mentioned earlier Island Hospice works through a multidisciplinary team of passionate and dedicated doctors, nurses and social workers supported by a large team of volunteer community care facilitators and youth groups. They have a dedicated Monitoring and Evaluation department, an innovative Training Department as well as a dynamic Finance and Administration department that successfully manages and administers over US$1 million of donor funds annually. It has a long list of both local and international donors and works hand in hand with the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare in Zimbabwe among others.

Currently Island Hospice Zimbabwe has one active project on the GlobalGivingUK website. This is centered on providing support for Orphans in Zimbabwe through training networking and community support. You can access it via this link: http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/projects/soz-support-for-orphans-in-zimbabwe/ .

If you would like to find out more about Island Hospice please visit their website at http://www.islandhospice.org/ or this very detailed article written by Fiona Curtin that I stumbled upon: http://www.teamaroundthechild.com/images/stories/journal-pdfs/issue8/8fionacurtin8.pdf. Reading is one thing but I also know there is still a lot more I need to learn and discover about Island Hospice. As I do so in the weeks to come I will also be posting more updates, videos and pictures for you so be sure to keep a look out.

XOXO
Chido Dziva Chikwari

P.S My fundraiser is still open at http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/fundraisers/zimbabwe-impact-assesment/. Oh and also remember to always be PRO-ACTIVE!