The centre is located in the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH) complex in Kisumu Town, Nyanza Province in Kenya.
Nyanza Province has a population of about 5 million people, with one of the highest HIV prevalence in the country at 15%.
Realising the need for a better-placed and spacious hospice, the Kisumu Hospice Board, under the leadership of Dr Julius Onyango, embarked on a mission to get the government of Kenya to donate land for them to build a patient and family friendly hospice.
Funds for the building were raised by the Nairobi Hospice Holland foundation to build the new centre. The Foundation have supported hospice work in Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi. Not only did they finance the project, but volunteers from the Foundation physically built the hospice building themselves. They prepared the building materials in the Netherlands and shipped them to Kenya, overcoming tax and customs difficulties along the way.
Mr Jan Gort, chair of Nairobi Hospice Holland, said: “We are humbled to be of assistance to palliative and hospice care in Kenya and other parts of Africa. Our motto is “Care can always be better”…although we started off with Nairobi Hospice, which is where our name comes from, we realised the greater need and extended our support to other hospices, especially in the rural areas. This is not easy with the recession, but we are trying our best.”
The new Kisumu Hospice and Palliative Care Centre building has 41 rooms, including a board room, a lab to enable testing for HIV/AIDS as well as other necessary lab procedures, and a fully equipped kitchen to cater for day care.
Read the full story on the Kenya edition of ehospice.
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