Since 2007 Muheza Hospice CAre has taken on the role of introducing palliative care to the rest of Tanga region.

Initially, with the help of  a grant from the Diana Princess of Wales memorial fund,  teams were trained to work in palliative care at all the district hospitals  ( Lushoto, Korogwe, Handeni, Kilindi, Pangani and Mkusi )  and in Bombo the regional hospital in Tanga

The trainings used the Palliative Care Toolkit which is available free in e version from http://www.helpthehospices.org.uk/our-services/international/what-we-do-internationally/education-and-training/palliative-care-toolkit/

This Toolkt is also available in Kiswahili from Tanzania Palliative Care Association or from Muheza Hospice Care.

The training has been backed up by mentors from Canada and the UK. These mentors, some of whom are seen in the picture of the first Tanga training above, have spent between 3 – 6 months with their team getting the service started, encouraging them in the use of morphine and getting links established into the community.

Tanga Region has had 3 Regional palliative care meetings

In November 2012 with new funding to try and get palliative care to village level, a Training of Trainers was held. A small committee was elected to over see palliative care in Tanga region and each team was given small funding to hold a training to extend the palliative care in their district.  The objective is to get the Toolkit in its Kiswahili version down to village level. This programme has been co-ordinated by Dr Fran Ashby and is linked to a palliative care training programme in Uttah Pradesh in North India.

Fran is seen here with Dr Mhoira Leng, professor of Palliative Care at Makerere University in Uganda who conducted the training together with members of Palliative Care Works ( http://www.palliativecareworks.org )  is overseeing the India part of the programme.

In October 2013 a follow up workshop was held in Tanga to look at where the roll out programme had reached and to work out how each district could get palliative care and copies of the Toolkit in Kiswahili down to Village level. Dr Fran Ashby returned to the UK in July and the co-ordination of the Tanga end of the project has been taken over by Dr Rina Patel.