Island Hospice and Healthcare Zimbabwe
Island Hospice and Healthcare is very fortunate to be one of the charities that receives financial support from Hampstead Parish Church through its charitable giving.
Founded in 1979 Island was the first hospice to be established in Africa. It is now a centre of excellence and charities from all over southern Africa visit to learn from them. Over the years it has had to adapt its operations to the changing conditions within Zimbabwe and to face new challenges as they presented themselves, the latest being coping with the Covid-19 pandemic. Currently the country is experiencing a further period of lockdown that is being gradually released, and a vaccination programme is being introduced for medical and healthcare personnel. Staff are alternating working from home and the office as they can.
Island does not run an in-patient hospice but provides a hospice service in the community, with a small head office in Harare and three other locations around the country from which these services are provided. In total there are just over twenty staff who are employed by the hospice together with a group of volunteers.
Below is a report from Zimbabwe that illustrates how Island have adapted to the situation on the ground. In the past Island staff would attend rural clinics and locals would travel to these clinics to receive palliative care medicines and counselling. A lot of these rural clinics closed over the years with the collapse of the commercial agricultural economy and staff would often see their patients walking long distances on the roadside heading towards the nearest clinic. Island came up with the idea of introducing roadside clinics that were introduced to cater for hospice and healthcare needs in the rural community where there is very little public transport, and where it does exist it is beyond the reach of many https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2ZvPU-2zx4&feature=youtu.be
These roadside clinics have been very well received and have also meant that many more patients have been able to receive the services provided by Island. Island staff arrange to meet their patients at prearranged times at designated stops on the road and palliative care is administrated.
Aside from these services Island is also engaged in various projects that are mainly funded from overseas grants, two of which are mentioned below.
As an indication of the importance of its work and the standard of care and quality of its operations, in February Island received a FCDO, UK Aid Direct grant for an 18-month project “Piloting a disability-inclusive palliative care service in Zimbabwe” which is believed to be the first of its kind and will be run out of the Mutare office in the east of the country. Island is also just entering its fourth year of a Jersey based trust funded initiative “Supporting Older People to become agents of their own change – a model for improving the health of older people in resource constrained Zimbabwe”.
Both of these funds support important projects but money is desperately needed for the day to day operation of its activities and Island is very grateful for the ongoing support it receives from Hampstead Parish Church.
Further information and details about Island can be found at http://islandhospice.org.uk/