Travel date: September 17, 2017
Name of Meeting/Event/Activity: 5th International Public Health & Palliative Care Conference
Origin: Kigali, Rwanda / Destination: Ottawa, Canada
The 5th International Public and Palliative Care Conference which held in Ottawa from 17th to 20th September 2017 was a platform of creating an opportunity for me and our delegates to hear from international, regional and Canadian speakers; network with hundreds of decision makers for not only palliative care domain but also Public health. The travel support of IAHPC was an opportunity to share our best practice in a Multidiprinary team, and as the national coordinator of palliative care during some specific topics discussion like “Building public policies that support health (Public Policy) and Creating participatory community partnerships” I learnt more about how public policies if include palliative care will expend the Universal coverage and will not leave behind those suffering and will be more protective to action and initiative regarding end of life support and pain relief. I realized the gap of integrating Palliative in other public health intervention like plan of HIV, legal aspects on Palliative care and continuum of care I also get the open ideas to feed in strengthening the new innovation community oriented program we have started called Home based Care practitioners which is coordinated by Ministry of health itself.
Hence palliative care in Rwanda is improving with resources limited setting, public health perspective need to be enhanced. The culture of coping with unnecessary pain need to be broken and we learn from Pallium Canada, how even symptom control till the end of like is other way of controlling pain and communication between patient and care givers is the key strategy to achieve the goal of dying with dignity; meeting some innovators like New Health foundation and discussed about how they have involved the civil societies in Palliative care and how community approach was cost effective I have decided to involve community partner and business people in next development of Palliative Care Strategic plan. Futhermore we have got the opportunity to commit for the next host of the meeting and we have been given the time to talk about our country health system and Palliative Care Integration into that and I found the occasion as an opportunity for more network for the benefit of Palliative care in Rwanda.
The IAHPC sponsorship is very great opportunity for Palliative Care Improvement and advocacy I would recommend to keep this methodology of funding travel because it is encouraging to those who can’t afford and if funds available add on the Accommodation for some in need. Thank you for Support I really gain more skills and continuous networks and collaborations for benefit of very suffering people of Rwanda and surrounding countries that we are in touch. No specific challenges encountered during my travel to the conference
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