Author : Tandiar Samir Mossaad
General Manager of JOSAAB Foundation – Hospice Egypt project
Hospice Egypt project
Hospice Egypt is a Josaab foundation project that provides free of charge hospice services to adult terminally ill patients and their family members. Many organizations brace other segments of Egyptian society. Hospice Egypt is a unique organization exclusively serving adult terminally-ill patients and their family members because they carry a massive psychological, social, financial burden. Terminal patients in Egypt are secluded, some unaware of their future steps. In Egypt, and according to the latest publication of the Lancet commission on global health, yearly an estimate of over 254,000 patients is in dire need of hospice services around the country.
Hospice Egypt Volunteer Team
Challenges facing Hospice Egypt
- Cultural resisting and difficulties to talk about death in the eastern society.
- The hospice concept and care is not well-known in Egypt.
- A limited number of volunteers who joined Hospice Egypt instead of high demanding of volunteers to serve more terminally ill patients.
How Hospice Egypt is managing these challenges:
- Recruiting students from the medical field
Hospice Egypt signed a protocol of collaborations with two different universities, one of them is a governmental university (Ain Shams University) and the other one is a private university (New Giza University). Signing such protocols is a good step that will facilitate recruiting more volunteers who are already dealing with patients. The objectives of these protocols are:
- Giving legitimacy to our work.
- A win-win situation for the two partners; by preparing future doctors and nurses for the hospice care and giving the students the opportunity to learn about their communities by conducting field visits with the Hospice Egypt team and ultimately adding to their credit hours in their curriculum.
- Serving thousands of patients in need of hospice care with the help of the recruited volunteers
- Organize periodical training for volunteers to prepare them for joining the Hospice team.
- Organize virtual campaigns to spread the concept of Hospice in Egypt.
The tasks they undertake are varied, and include:
Joining the hospice team in field visits to the terminally ill patients at their premises as well as
– Disseminating the hospice idea
– Driving the patient to the hospital to receive pain killers
– Share in Hospice Egypt events
– Support the patient’s children
– Prepare cooked food for the family
– Help in legal paperwork for the patient and for his/her children
– Taking the patient in a day out ( help in fulfilling the patient’s wishes)
You can read more here: www.hospiceegypt.org
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