Cyclone Freddy victims in Flood Camps in need of grief and bereavement counselling

Hi. My name is Isaac Chikonde, a palliative care nurse from Malawi. I did my palliative care training at Hospice Africa Uganda. I am working with a medical team called Project Heart to Heart and we have been conducting mobile clinics in Flood Camps where people who were displaced by Cyclone Freddy are temporarily housed. I thought of sharing some palliative care needs.

Thousands of people have lost their homes and they are now just staying in schools. Many have lost their loved ones and many children have become orphans since the onset of the cyclone. We believe many of these people are in need of grief and bereavement counseling as they did not get to have time to grieve for their loved ones due to the emergency situation. We are planning to facilitate proper bereavement counselling at some point to avoid complications of grief especially in children.

We have seen a lot of children in need of palliative care, as well as other psychosocial interventions such as play and continuation of education in these camps, because they spend their days just wondering around unsupervised, and thus may be vulnerable to abuses and other risks.

Fortunately, most of the children we encountered are being seen by medical volunteers including our team, so  I did not see any challenges in pain management. However, I recommend that there should be a palliative care need assessment.

These are the pictures of our team that is working in Nsanje medical clinics  and a group of our team of volunteers.

Appeal for donations for the Palliative Care Association of Malawi (PACAM)
The people of Malawi affected by Cyclone Freddy urgently need our support. Many of them are receiving palliative and comprehensive chronic care and have been left vulnerable and struggling to access essential healthcare and basic necessities. We appeal to everyone to donate generously to support the relief efforts in Malawi and provide life-saving assistance to those who need it the most. Your donation can make a significant difference in the lives of those affected by this disaster, and it is crucial that we come together to provide relief and restore hope for a brighter future.To donate towards the plsease follow this link.