What a Difficult Customer!

Just last evening, I took a chair to have some look warm tea with honey at the place near the road. Its a bit raised and one can see cars as they pass the busy Entebbe road. Actually, I think its a great business idea. A place for tea for people looking for an evening. It could be that they are a couple or just someone alone from work wanting to enjoy some tea and a cookie. How about that? Anyhow, as I had my tea, two ladies approached. They wanted to take a table near mine but preferred that the waitress arranges the chairs in some way.

The waitress had just picked my order and was heading to the machine. That kind of machine that they punch in orders. it looks like a small TV on the wall. I think it sends a message to the chef once it punched. I like the whole idea that the waitress doesn't have to shout Tea and cookies! The machine does that.

So one of the ladies spoke in a rather harsh tone..." can you get us a place to sit ?" Please nyabo (madam), we are customers here... I don't even know why you cannot welcome us.
I saw the waitress responding so calmly and with a smile asking for pardon. I felt like she acted cool. But the lady was not done..."The table mat here is placed poorly...I think some of you didn't even do any catering course, you are here to learning on the job..." The waitress kept quiet... Then she moved away, maybe to pick something...maybe the menu for the customer to look at... as she stepped off, the customer had another demand..." can you now add another chair, actually two, we expect our hubbys to join us..."

Let me tell something, the chairs were just so near... I felt for the waitress, I got up and fixed pushed the two chairs to the customer.. By doing so, I didn't know that I had committed a mistake, the customer had turned to me..."You, all a long your work here...you saw us coming in and remained seated...you didn't welcome us...what type of customer care is this ?"
I stepped back, waited for my tea and enjoyed it... Its was a cool evening. I eavesdropped to some of the stories before the men arrived... All I can tell you is..."chose your partner carefully my friend" some of these people have too much on their mind...

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time....!

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11

I like to think about things past and reflect. In my free time, I get hold of an old book that I read those days and just run through it quickly. I just feel good about it. sometimes this evokes a feeling of triumph. 
 I mean, I just remember how God has led me through  seasons and all I can say to Him is.."I will trust in you always Jehovah-Shalom ". 

Do you write down your prayer requests? If you do, pick up your hidden notes and look at 2, 3, 5, 10 years ago, you will be amazed. You will find that God has answered every prayer. It's actually ok that you don't remember all. By our nature, new things come. So we forget that, what we wanted badly and now want something new or better.

One thing for sure that I have proved through my life experience is that love and beauty grow. I can tell you, with absolute certainty that Omukyala is more beautiful. I look back to twelve or thirteen years when I first met her. She is now more beautiful and I mean both inside and out. Then my love for her has grown too. One may say that its an issue of memory but not at all. I appreciate her feelings, likes, and passions much better now. I have confidence that this will grow even more.  As we grow together, we are loving ourselves more and enjoying ourselves deeply. And God must be happy about this. 

I had written to you a short story about how I met this amazing gal. I can now tell you about our wedding. Not the whole story though. Just sentences about the beautiful day. It's just like yesterday. Nothing much has changed. In fact, the other day I passed the hotel where we had our reception. It just looks like the grass and the short trees of the time are still at large. It could be true. you may find some grass which lived then still there. 

On the eve of our wedding day, I traveled with my friend. He had some old car which served this purpose. I need to ask him where this vehicle is of late. It helped us a lot!  So I and my second best man drove to my wife's home. I and Eddie had a whole chicken. Then we set off with our wife and some two young gals. I think one was supposed to be a flower gal and another one of the maids of honor. Along the way, we had cool stories. But we also had an interesting one about the changing dress. I always didn't like the idea of changing dresses. That was then. It's now a different story.

On the day of our wedding, we woke up early and picked the gals for their saloon. Now, my best man would not have me wake up to at 5am but I insisted. The fellow reasoned that I needed to stay resting. How naive could this man be? I mean, even if I had stayed in my bed, my mind was out there. After all, we had shared the house with many of the boys. They stalking stories just before 5am. There was no way I would remain in bed. I just had to go with the boys to pick the gals. Some of the maids of honor overslept. So we devised means. A group of men waited to pick those that weren't ready while we delivered my wife to her saloon. I will leave out the details of our talk that morning but I can tell you that it was cool.

Our wedding was at 1PM, the wedding reception was near the Cathedral in such a way that the guests walked from church to the reception. In fact, some of the guests had a meal at noon and later walked to church. I am told that some of my people from the LC1 chose to have another meal after church. The church was full. We had great friends that sang for us.  We had friend ushering in guests at church. I am not sure they remember we owe them. 

One other thing I remember is that on unveiling her. She looked stunningly beautiful. I felt good about it. But now she is more beautiful. We have grown a bit, we love ourselves more, we talk more, read the Bible together, we think together more and we pray together more. It's just one thing we don't yet do together. We are yet to read a book together with a book from cover to cover. Who will give us such a good book to read together? We have done books but she will not read all of it. I only tell her the remaining story or all of it. 

I am just looking forward to the years to come. Then my friend Humura is in the picture and it's even becoming more beautiful. 

I wish you all the best in marriage, my dear wife! By the way, let's say you take us out today or tomorrow. How about that?

 

 

Be candid, respect everyone and behave my friend !

A smartly dressed lady with posh makeup on her and driving a sleek vehicle just committed a small mistake on the road. Bodaboda men have her. All sorts of abuses to her.

The taxi I am using is just near there. The driver is calm and quiet. the conductor jumps off walks quickly as if to help the lady shield off the bodaboda men who are increasingly abusive. Infant, they are shouting insults. The conductor joins the choir. I can tell you, this is a master at this song! The boy can abuse! The lady is looking at him with sort of an intent gaze. This earns her more abuse...her eyes, nose, shaved eyelashes, painted hair, painted lips, nose ring, etc...

In a while, a traffic police lady shows up, its all cleared quickly and we are on the road again.

Affect about 10 meters away, the driver stops, moves to the "conductor's door' askes him to hand over all the money he had collected and pulled him off the taxi... The driver tells the conductor to leave immediately! He tells him to back to some town along Masaka road.

The reason, the boy abused the boss! I mean, the taxi belongs to the lady! This conductor is a cousin to the driver who he recruited just before Easter break.

so we continue the journey as I chat with the driver! You know these drivers have cool stories, especially in the morning.

Of course, there are a number of lessons to learn from this short encounter. one of them is that sometimes we ourselves do clear the path to our own destruction.  It is important to always be candid, respectful and focused. Chose which war you want to fight. before any fight, ask yourself: what will I gain if I win this one? what could be the cost of losing such a war? 

"My friend was recently promoted...she has turned our work into hell..."

Sometime last year, I had resolved to come over at least once in a week to share something on work ethic. But I failed. I have been very busy of late. Somehow, things to be done continue to pile. A day passes and I only realize that I didn't accomplish all on my to-do-list. One morning, I will stop doing this list of thngs to do in a day. I will just hadle things as they come and at the end of the day go home not to remember anything until the next day. This must happen soon.

But that's not the story. It is here. I met a long time lost friend, she had great stories for me. You know those stories that date way back in time. This is a particular friend that I met way back after campus. We walked together a jouney to work. Yes we walked on foot to work. If this sounds funny, then you just dont know how cool it is to pray along the paths! Every nice vehicle that passes, you take, every nice perfume of someone waiting on the road for taxi, you take, and other things you will find. Some things like dead dogs. You walk passed them. So we walked, we prayed, we wished, we had great shoes that liked dust.

Just before the end of my friend's stories, she told me one that bothered me. She was angry with her colleague at work. She was mad at a 'former friend'.  Apparently, the colleague was recently promoted to deputize the head. The promotion had worked upon the colleague in tremendous ways. She acts funny. She wears higher hills. she is alway early at work. she had cut off all the yummy gossip! She nolonger posta regulary on the staff WhatsApp group. 

the character part aside, the colleague had changed the targets. She had set tough targets. She had also proposed some changes such as bio metric check in at work every morning. The colleague had lobbied a food supplier, contracted so that staff can have meals around the work place. This had 'killed' the walk out at lunch and break. But worst of all according to her, the colleague had introduced a scheduled annual leave system that auto calculates leave days taken. This means no more extra leave days thefts.

Somehow, the ED and HR Manager believed that these changes are cool. But this was detrimental to 'our freedom'. So my long lost friend is very angry. In fact she is a bitter woman of late. I met her with her 5 year daughter. they had branched to have some mashed potatoes at a cafe near a huge supermarket. I had branched off to gaze and classy people too.  After all the stories, the gal told me "... my Mamie is not happy these days....even the gate man at school knows...she hoots so hard every morning..."  Now, I don't want to imagine what the husband to my long lost friend would say. It must be interesting for him. I mean really. How do you sleep with a pissed of woman ?

Friend, you can avoid that bag of emotion at work. Take work for what it is supposed to be and live a life. Choose to play along. Yes act along! Respecting the legally instituted laws is the trick. Don't pretend. Face the facts. Regardless of anything, the work environment is evolving. At sometime, you will find new things that will call you out of your comfort zone. Come on, take a glass of warm water each morning, say a prayer, hug your husband goodbye and side kiss your daughter at the gate of her school. Take time to visit a long lost friend on a weekend, get to church on Sunday. Don't miss that mid week fellowship. Call your husband to a simple date on Sunday evening to boost energy levels to face Monday. On Monday early morning, shout out loudly in your bathroom and say...come on new week, its me and you here..lets roll! Do you have some cool music on flash disk ? Throw it along the way as you drive to work!

My friend, don't let your job be your life. To angry is to be alive but not that anger overshadows life!

Reply emails and work stuff in the most cool way. Don't keep a lot for tomorrow. Did I ever say this sometime ago, some rules, people and procedures at work will try to piss you off. Chose to be cool. I mean no need to keep quiet, reply in utmost love to every detail.

All the best!

A Season of Parties at Home! The Joy of Giving Away!

Barbra the beautiful bride on Dec 24th 2018

We just had a mevoluous season!

Okuhingira Barbara. Then her wedding to her beloved Justus and all that comes with it.

Barbra my young sister is the only girl among my mothers children. I hope this is good English. We are four boys and her. So my mother produced the five of us.

My mother is a strong woman. I need to cross check this fact but I think before her early 30 years of age, she had all of us here and about. My father got her just in time. She is therefore still beautiful and energetic. You can read about her in my other pieces on my blog.

Before I found Omukyara the two: Barbra and my Mother were the only women of my life. Later on, my friend Humura joined. I now have four of them. I also have other two sisters and a brother. So add to the five I mentioned earlier on. We are a a big family.

Of the women of my life, Omukyara and Humura occupy more space on my mind because they are full time partners.

Now Barbra has left with another man.

Barbara in the sitting room at home on her
give away Dec 24th 2018 

I can tell you something small about Barbra. Just something brief about her childhood. She grew up loved. My grandmother gave Barbra many names. The prominent one was Nyakikongoro. But there was also another name: Ekiteramasinde! I particularly liked the second name. I could tell you why, if we had evening tea together. The other thing that I remember about Barbra is that she really breastfed. Actually, she would go out playing and whenever she was tied, she could come to my mother and ask to drink. On the day she let go, a lady friend of my mother had visited. It is the friend that advised that way. So they sent me for some red paper which was applied on my mother's breast. This was enough. Barbra went out crying never to touch our mother's breast again. Barbra had excellent health all through her childhood. I don't remember her getting bedridden due to sickness. The rest of us had some malaria episodes here and there. But not much. We all really had good health. nothing threatening. Thank the heavens. Many children in our community suffered all sorts of illnesses.

There is something else I remember but cannot write here. It's one of those funny things that ought to be kept a secret.

In our culture, there is a proverb which attests that "...it's better for an old woman who studied your childhood days to die before you are an adult..." Akakeikuru kakumanya kuri okura kakafa.. Whenever we meet at home, we normally share those childhood memory things. Some of those things are too funny. I think it will be cool when our children grow to hear some of these stories. They will laugh! Or by the way they may find the stories not funny. Kids of these days do not face life the way we did. Who among them will go to well to fetch water ? Or go out grazing cattle ? I think my brothers will agree with me. Our kids will miss our kind of life. They are here wearing shoes in cars hehehehe.

Barbara studied at great schools, Kashozi Boarding Primary School, Keizooba Girls, Bweranyangi Girls and later faced the gates of the great Makerere for her undergraduate.

I think Barbra did not study primary one. Because our mother was a primary school teacher, Barbra stayed with Mum in P.2 untill she was of age to proceed to P.3. Actually most of my Mums former pupils now big people did carry baby Barbara.

You know, teachers had a way of bring their children in class. The baby would be in the conner as lessons are going on. At break time, it was fine to find the other children requesting to carry the baby. It was just fine.  Is this still happening ?

So Barbra must have had at least two or three years in Primary two. She skipped Nursery and Primary one.

Leaving aside the light side, Barbra is now a woman! Soon she will have a clan around her. Her own children etc. Perhaps I will also add other women at my household to follow my friend Humura. This is about seasons that come and go. Do you know that song ? It's a cool song by the Anglican Youth Fellowship - AYF. They are very good! I sometimes wonder why they still refer to themselves as youth. these are some mature guys. But they are still AYF. I should ask my best man why this is so. He knows these guys more. 

So we had such a great give away ceremony for Barbra at home. The weather was perfect, the food was plentiful and our friends and relatives showed up. Some of our friends actually visited home for the first time. My friend Mujuni came with his wife Patience. It was cool to receive Patience at home. Hope also came. She had her sister and brother. They enjoyed the party, at least they told me so. It's impossible for me to mention all friends that turned up. They were many! Thank you all for coming. The Area Member of Parliament,the District Chairperson and his dear wife, the Mayor of the Municipality  and many other leaders came too. 

To say it differently, we had a multitude of people at my fathers compound on December 24th 2018. One day, the younger ones who danced nearly all night will tell the stories. People of Peties' age and those younger. They danced till late. We had Ekibali singing and Doris dancing too. Great decoration by Teacher Alice and all other beautiful things that happened. We also had a good MC in Speed.

In the middle of it all, Lonah a long time friend of Barbara walked with her around. They actually danced walking. I have not yet conceived why dancing has become part of these parties. All I know is that in our culture, a bride is supposed to be as composed as a giraffe in strong wind. But this is changing. Brides and their entourage dance a round. some sing actually. So Barbra Danced too! She was beautiful and her entourage too. 

I gave a speech. I told everyone about our family. The four core attributes that make us:  

We believe and in Trust in God the giver of everything. 

We are humble people - our Dad especially.

We work hard - we are self made and seek our own identify. 

We love ourselves a lot - we are family - we care for one another. 

I then introduced people:  Our core Family, Ba - Shwenkuru , Ba shwento , Ba shwenkazi - Mr Mugisha and his entire family, Ba Marimi, Bamawento, Friends of our family - Rev. Rukundo, Mr Muhanguzi, our in-laws, Barbra's employers, our friends ad abataka. I thanked everyone! 

Barbara and her beutiful maids on Dec 29th 2018. 

Because of the Okuhingira things, our entire family missed church on December 25th. This was perhaps the first time in many years that we missed church on christmas day. Or maybe there was another time that I don't remember.

Did the church miss us ? I hope so. We had the church leaders the previous day at home. They are our people. Leaders at our church are forever friends to my parents. 

So we remained home on Dec 25th to clean around, wear off fatigue and all that. Stories from church indicated that they had a great service.

I was able to attend church on Dec 26th. The preacher, some old Reverend appealed to us to be bold in doing right. To stand firm on truth always. He spoke about St Stephen in Bible and how he died for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Barbra and Her Husband receiving a gift from Dr Kiiza Besigye.
In our culture, such occasions transcend politics.
My mother is a staunch NRM leader.
Leaders from diverse political parties were hosted at the party. 

On December 29th, Barbra and Justus had their wedding occasion.

This was at St Peter's Cathedral Bweranyangi. The couple enjoyed their day.

The choice of the church was perfect. Remember Barbra went to Bweranyangi Girls Secondary School for her high school. The school is just adjacent to the church of her wedding. Justus grew up around the same hill. What a memorable experience.

Barbara was beautiful. She is such a beauty. You know she resembles my Mum a lot. They are beautiful women.

The day was special. The couple hosted their guests at a hotel in Bushenyi town. We had a great time. My friend Norah did sing at their wedding. We had good food. Many people attended including the area Women Member of Parliament Bushenyi District and Dr Kiiza Besigye. It was sort of a mix of colours. What a cool day. Where love is, people from all walks of life meet and greet pleasantly. 

I gave a speech too: 

Barbra & Justus 

My parents Mr and Mrs Bikosa on whose behalf I stand to speak this day!  Religious Leaders, Political Leaders ,Our relatives, all our our friends , Ladies and Gentlemen! 

Barbra! 

What a beautiful day ! Can could you imagine such wonderful weather ? Look how beautiful you look! And everything thing here is beautiful!  Let me thank people who have been in your life! 

- Thank you Dad. You love us! You sacrificed a too much for us. 

- Thank you Mum. You love us.  

- Thank you - Edmund, Edson & Peter. You have loved Barbra too. 

- Thank you our wives - Omukyara, Nyamunyonyi and ; Kikwanzi. You have loved Barbra. 

- Thank you Barbara's friends! You are many! You have been with her. I could name those I know.

- Thank you all our relatives.

- Thank you so much the Bible Society of Uganda. Barbra has not worked else where. You received and embraced her. You are part of our family. Justus, please do yourself a favor. Live the work that Barbra does at BSU. Meet and befriend her friends and workmates at BSU. You will find it enriching and valuable. You will be in the right path that way. You will speak to Barbara's heart that way. 

Edmund has already said enough about Barbra. Let me add one thing. We love you Barbra. And we know you love us too. Justus, Barbra is a dedicated human being. You have to work with her. You need to think with her. You have married a serious woman. Be a real man. Mean this that you have started. 

Let me introduce introduce our family & Friends. 

-  Dad & Mum  Bashwento, Bashwenkazi, Omwahure weitu hamwe na Omuburuzi weitu, Bamarimi, Ba Nyakwento our in-laws.. sinc, Our Cousins - Thank you so much Polly, Paghi Mugisha & your wives for joining us. Thank you all our cousins who are here.  All our friends! Mwebare! 

Barbra, Dad & Mum gave you a heifer. Bikosa foundation gave you one too. Dad & Mum natured & educated you! Gyenda obe omukazi. Mukama akuhe omugyisha omukayaawe. 

On December 30th we visited a good lady in Rubindi. She is a good friend. A window, down to earth and one who loves. She gave gave to us from her granary. 

I preached at our Church on New Years Day. This had not been part of schedule for the season. The leader of our church asked me to through a phone call. I did accept.  

Mukama Asiimwe ! 

Mukurike omwaka bantumwe! 

This has been a long one! Let it stop here.

The Joke of the year during the give away ceremony of Barbra was that the next at our compound would be that of my friend Humura. We pray for you madam and look forward.

Session: 1 Be a Dependable Team Player!

Hi, I am writing to you on a Sunday afternoon !

We were at Lubowa today.

A good friend of mine currently heads a great organisation in town. His organization is the Federation of Uganda Employers.  He does many things because of this role and acumen. For the purpose of this write up, I will focus on his write ups in the New Vision news paper.  His write ups are published every Monday.

I read a news paper every day. I have something or someone to look up to daily. When I was growing up, I looked up to Mr Ras , Old Fox (never mind that some of it was adult content) and Ekanya.  Now I look up to other things. I never want to miss Muwonge C.W Magembe, my friend Mer Douglas Opio and others.

In one of his recent pieces Mr Opio wrote about the importance of building strong teams at a workplace. It was a good read. It made me remember an incident that happened years ago.

I will be brief with the story.  I will write it simply and plainly. Then I will return with the principles, theory and moral lessons in another session.

One time, I worked under a very good supervisor. I say good because he had a way of delivering through us his team. He equally worked hard and was dependable.You could count on him. He could stand by his word by all standards. At one time he instructed me to do something which backfired. He stood by his instruction and defended me including on media. He apologised for my mistake. He gave me confidence.

One of the key things that our division did for the organisation was to organise events.  So one time we had a big event to organise. As was nature of my supervisor, he invited me to his office and requested me to lead the rest of the team in organising this. We were to launch a new project at a hotel facility. After our meeting, I invited our team of 20 people and briefed them. We agreed to share tasks and created departments. The departments included branding and decoration, catering, publicity, transport, security venue preparation etc. I requested team members to volunteer to head the departments. The team approved volunteer heads of the departments. Each department would meet and present a detail on how and a workable budget for their tasks. We had a general budget which was shared with the volunteer heads. 

At our next meeting, all departments presented except the transport department. The volunteer head explained that he was yet to meet the head driver of the organisation to sort the detail. Infact all Members agreed that we did not have to waste time discussion transport after all the organisation had many cars.  So departmental budgets were passed by the meeting except that of transport and the one of branding and decoration which was deemed on a higher side. The meeting however passed the artwork of the brading and decoration after numerous changes. The lady incharge of decoration was asked to venture out for a more manageable budget. At the next meeting, the transport department was still not ready with a detail and budget. The lady in charge did not attend the meeting. On phone, she informed everyone that the price for the decoration had been revised and she would hand in the new costs on Monday the following week. 

By nature of my work at that organisation, I had looks of engagements. two day to the event, we had the last meeting. All departments had received money for their activities except the two. Everything else was sorted except the two departments. The departments of Brading and decoration plus transport.  

To cut the long story short, the team worked around the clock to sort out the branding and the decoration plus the transport. The event was very successful but the team was disjointed.  Team members felt let down by two leaders. The evaluation meeting was full of negative energy instead of praise. 

Please note that the top leadership of the organization was extremely impressed by my team. But my team was not happy with me. They wanted me to push for the punishment of my two colleagues. how do you have people punished when the team has performed excellently ? 

I will not let you know how this ended but it did. Like all things do. we danced and hugged at the party offered by the organisation head to thank us for a job well done. 

In session 2, we will delve into real serious stuff. What does it mean to be a dependable team player ? 

Palliative Care - Because I Matter

Dear Friends,

WHPCD 2018 Theme

Today I write to you about something different from my usual stories. This blog is about my thoughts. I intend to start writing about some of the work that I have been involved over time.
This piece is about my currently work. Its work not for the faint hearted. It is meaningful work - touching lives and all that. Please read up to the end.

On Saturday October 13th 2018, the world will commemorate the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD 2018) under the theme Palliative Care – Because I Matter! This is a unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world. The Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU) where I currently work is spearheading the commemoration of this day in Uganda. The event will be held at Makerere University Sports Grounds. The aim of the events will be to create awareness and to promote collaboration for advancement of palliative care services in Uganda. 

These activities have been planned for the day:  

• A Palliative Care Walk around the Makerere University Hill to raise awareness about this important service
•  Exhibitions by hospices.
• A football game between Executive Directors of hospices and patients who will volunteer to play. - 
• Other games by staff working with hospices in the country. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines palliative care as “an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and thorough assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.

Globally, the diseases that require palliative care for adults and children include cancer, cardiovascular diseases, HIV/AIDS, liver and kidney diseases, among others.

In era of increase in the incidence of Non Communicable Diseases (NDCs), palliative care services are as important as any other element of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and cannot be ignored. There is evidence by research to show that early palliative care interventions improve survival and patient outcomes and, for this reason, should be provided from the point of diagnosis.

The provision of palliative care services in Uganda started in 1993 with the establishment of Hospice Africa Uganda (HAU) founded by Anne Merriman a British Doctor. It is now therefore, silver jubilee of Palliative Care service provision.  

Over the last 25 years, Uganda has realized milestones and registered globally recognized best practices in this field. Some of these achievements that are envied by the palliative care movement in the world include the following: 

• Palliative Care was integrated in Uganda’s Health Sector Strategic Implementation Plan since 2004. Palliative Care is included in the mission statement of the national health policy and is included within the Uganda Minimum Health Care Package (UMHCP). 

• Uganda was the first country in the world to allow specially trained palliative care nurses and clinical officers to prescribe specific opioid analgesics including oral liquid Morphine for pain control in 2004.  This greatly contributed to spread of Palliative Care in the Country.

• The government of Uganda pays for the production of Oral Liquid Morphine a World Health Organization (WHO) recommended medicine for management of moderate and severe pain. Patients access this medication free of charge.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) and Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Association mapping in 2014 highlights Uganda as the only country in Africa which had achieved advanced integration of palliative care into mainstream service provision.

• The Quality of Death Index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit in 2015 ranked Uganda as the second in Africa after South Africa and 35th globally out of the 80 countries studied. Parameters of measurement included: Palliative and healthcare environment, human resources, affordability of care, quality of care and community engagement.

• Research conducted by the Palliative Care Association of Uganda shows that there is a form of Palliative Care in at least 90% of all districts in Uganda

Whereas Uganda is hailed globally as a model of palliative care service provision in Africa, there is still a significant unmet need for palliative care and pain relief services. Currently only 11% of those who need pain control within the wider context of palliative care access it in our country. 

The recent  Annual Report by the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) to Parliament set out recommendations on the right to palliative care in Uganda. The recommendation made to government include: 

• The need to expedite the development of the National Palliative Care Policy to streamline the provision and regulation of palliative care in Uganda.

• Instituting of a clear monitoring and evaluation strategies for palliative health care services.

• Reinstating the legal instrument allowing specially trained nurses to prescribe morphine.

• Strengthening the national and district coordination mechanisms for the provision of palliative care services.

• Ensuring that the proposed National Health Insurance Scheme covers palliative care.

• Increasing the budgetary allocations to the Health Ministry for palliative care services.

• Scale up training of palliative care human resources and integrating palliative health care service professionals into the mainstream public service structure.

The Health Sector Development Plan 2016 – 2020 by the Ministry of Health shows that hospice and palliative care services are being offered in only 4.8% of the hospitals in the country. The African Palliative Care Association (APCA) Atlas of 2017 also revealed some gaps in policy, education, service delivery, access to medicines and data collection.

Whereas research by Hospice Africa Uganda shows that majority of the palliative care patients desire to die at home, the dominant health care arrangement in Uganda does not emphasized home care. Instead, the sick have to travel long distances or be transported to health facilities.

The standalone hospices which would fill this gap are few, scattered and greatly under resourced. They survive on minimal contributions by their founders, individual member’s donations and foreign aid which makes some of their programs unsustainable.

The WHPCD 2018 Flier from PCAU 

The Palliative Care Association of Uganda is also urging the government to put in place practical steps for the implementation of the 2014 World Health Assembly ((WHA) Resolution on the strengthening of palliative care as a component of integrated service at all levels within the continuum of care.

All stakeholders including government and civil society actors need to work together to realize action on these recommendations. Whereas the field of palliative care is still developing in our country, freedom from pain is a fundamental human right. No one ought to die in pain and suffering due to long term illness in the era of palliative care. Everyone deserves dignified care at end of life.

The WHPCD 2018  gives us the opportunity to come together as partners and friends share notes, talk about our services to humanity, strengthen our collaboration and networking, advocate for palliative care together and also have fun.  I mean, you could come along with your entre family. There will be some juice and all that. I hope you come. When you do, please let me me you read this here.