Grantee details

Traveling Scholars Program Report

Nahla Gafer, MD

Travel date: May 18, 2017

Name of Meeting/Event/Activity: 15th European Association Palliative Care Conference

Origin: Khartoum, Sudan / Destination: Madrid, Spain


How was this meeting/activity helpful to you?

This congress was especially useful in terms of links.  We met personnel from the University of Edinburgh and we exchanged projects about a joint post-graduate diploma in PC for Sudanese doctors and nurses.  I meet personnel from the European lnstitute of Oncology and the National lnstitute of Tumors, Milan, and they accepted that some Sudanese doctors spend time at the palliative care units there next year.  We met a Sudanese palliative care specialist working in Australia, who promised to join our work when he is in Sudan.   Also I profited a lot attending the different sessions 4.   I gained a lot of knowledge in terms of research conduction and presentation.     I became updated in a lot of topics discussed, and I hope to reflect that I the work we do in Sudan.  A lot of the Plenary session were very motivating for our cause

How will you new knowledge & acquired skills help in furthering your work in hospice and palliative care in your program/city/ or country?

lt changes my practice considering the new methods of training and service delivery.  lt enriches our capacity for research in palliative care

How IAHPC Traveling Scholars Program be improved in order to help other future traveling scholars?

To increase the number of scholarships for more people to benefit, if possible

Narrative summary highlighting the needs and challanges you face

Four years ago I attended the 13th Congress held in Prague. And I never regretted it. I have paid all my expenses at the time. It felt as if I am visiting some close relatives, I met personnel from IAHPC with whom we have been in correspondence for the last three or four years. It was marvelous!  That is why I encouraged my colleagues in Sudan to also come and attend. We were seven in all. For two of my colleagues it was their first time they travel to Europe, and he first time that their papers are accepted in an international conference.  My boss, an administrator at the University College were we hold courses of palliative care, was marveled by the speech given by Liliana de Lima on “Progressing Palliative Care in Low and Middle Income Countries” and “Project Lucy: Innovation in the Financing and Provision of Palliative Care Services”, and later enjoyed the Bereavement and Spirituality sessions. There were a lot of emotions as we met the British nurse that helped establish palliative care services in Sudan in 2009. Her last visit to Sudan was in 2013. At the booths we received several opportunities for further studies and joint researches and managed to get some books too.  We were very happy to attend the launching of both the African and the Eastern Mediterranean Region Atlases which were part of. Now governments and ministries of health can see where we are, and the importance of palliative care.  Apart from the sessions which were very fruitful, to mention some of the extra-ordinary ones (Effectiveness of a Therapeutic Conversation Intervention for Family Members, Findings from a World Café to Elicit Community Group Perspectives and of course the tear-producing presentation Filling the Gap between People, Management and Technology by Emilio Herrera), we enjoyed the well-organization, the catering, and most important the inspiration we return back with after meeting colleagues working in the same field, and exchanging our difficulties, experiences and successes.  It is just like refueling your car at a petrol station. Inside our countries, sometimes we meet resistance, opposition, and mis-appreciation running for the cause of palliative care. 2,800 delegates. 5 continents. New links. So, thanks Madrid. Muchas gracias. Fue spectacular!


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