APCA Celebrates 10 Years Of Promoting Palliative Care In Africa

APCA Executive Director, Dr Emmanuel Luyirika

The African Palliative Care Association (APCA) is this year celebrating 10 years of promoting palliative care in Africa.

Founded in Kampala in February 2004 APCA has strived for the last 10 years to raise awareness of palliative care, ensure its integration into health care and education, and to undertake the research that underpins palliative care.

APCA was founded with a staff of just five people and a small operating budget. At that time very few Africans could access palliative care and there was widespread misunderstanding of the discipline. This resulted in a lack of integration of palliative care into health systems in most African countries. Because of this, millions were left to suffer unnecessary painful deaths.

Today the organization has grown into a regional umbrella body influencing palliative care across the continent. APCA now has a permanent team of 28 staff and a governance team of experts drawn from across Africa.

Over the last 10 years APCA has supported several African countries to develop palliative care policy frameworks, offered research training, supported education initiatives and helped increase access to funding for some national associations and palliative care implementers. The impact this work has had speaks for its self.

Today more people across Africa have access to pain and symptom management than ever before. Currently, APCA is supporting the development of palliative care in 21 countries across the continent reaching out to patients across the continent. In September 2013 Ministers of Health agreed to a Palliative Care Consensus Statement at APCA tri-annual conference.

This work has only been possible due to the support from African governments and Ministries of Health as well as the national palliative care associations, donors and of course the staff, board, and members within APCA.

This 10 year event is a celebration of all the hard work of the thousands of people and organisations who have contributed to APCA's work.

Despite this considerable success, there is a lot of work to be done over the coming decade. At the heart of all this will be the millions of patients who are living with life threatening illnesses who need palliative care.

The coming year will be filled with celebrations and APCA would like to invite you to be part of it all. The celebrations will cumulate in a series of events in June 2014 which include several activities across Africa and a fundraising dinner which will bring together stakeholders in palliative care, partners, representatives of governments, and APCA members and staff.

About The African Palliative Care Association – The African Palliative Care Association

(APCA) works collaboratively with existing and potential providers of palliative care services across Africa to help expand service provision. APCA also works with governments and policymakers to ensure the optimum policy and regulatory framework exists for the development of palliative care across Africa. For more information please visit www.africanpalliativecare.org.

· About APCA's history – For more information about APCA's history please visit http://www.africanpalliativecare.org/about/about-apca/

· Contactdetails: For further information please contact Steve Hynd at [email protected] or +256 (0)778130403.

· Keep up-to-date with APCA: You can follow APCA on twitter at https://twitter.com/APCAssociation

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