Caring Circle Team Journeys to Our Lady of Hospice
Jun 18, 2018
Caring Circle has announced a global partnership with Our Lady’s Hospice in Kenya and Global Partners in Care. Our Global Hospice team completed the third workshop with the Our Lady’s Hospice clinical staff on May 2. These workshops covered wound care, palliative care, counseling skills, and bereavement.
Class participants included, From left to right, top- Ester, Samuel, Faith, Kevin, Julie, bottom-Grace, Fedelis, Mary, David, Margaret and Rischell.
Located thousands of miles from southwest Michigan is a small city outside the suburb of Nairobi, Kenya called Thigio. It is in this small town where local men and women are changing the perceptions about end of life, pain, and palliative care.
Our Lady’s Hospice, led by Hospice Manager, Sister Eileen, is a nine-bed inpatient facility started by the Daughters of Charity in 2010 in response to the suffering of the dying, a majority of whom had difficulty in accessing health care as a result of financial constraints.
Our Lady’s Hospice provides comfort care and compassion to those they serve, focusing on quality of life, which could include taking patients outside to enjoy the sun, watching movies or video meditations in the day room, or holding a patient’s hand.
Sister Eileen, along with compound administrator, Sister Deborah, provide professional care while managing limited resources. Staff utilize solar power (for pumping water throughout the compound and emergency power at the hospice), two milking cows, and a mostly sustainable garden. Sister Eileen accepts most patients regardless of ethnicity, religion, or wealth. Those who cannot afford the National Insurance program (about $5 USD per month) or the nominal fees are not turned away.
While visiting with Our Lady’s Hospice, Caring Circle hospice team members learned that HIV and cancer were two prevalent diseases, which contribute to the high mortality rate of 50 years old. In addition to hospice services for those with stage IV cancer, the Daughters of Charity provide support services to over 300 HIV patients through their clinic. Most of the residents in the surrounding community have few resources. A typical home visited by hospice staff, had a dirt floor, no electricity, and no running water.
To learn more about Caring Circle's global partnership contact (269) 429-7100