Durban palliative care organisation got a shot in the arm today when Consul-General of India, Rajagopalan Ragunathan, pledged to provide it with support so that it can reach out to scores of children facing terminal illnesses in KwaZulu-Natal.
The good news is fruits of KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Finance Belinda Scott's hard work to drum support for the non-governmental organisation providing pediatric palliative care in areas around Durban.
Scott set up a meeting between Ragunathan and Umduduzi's Dr Julia Ambler to see how can Umduduzi's good work be supported.
Responding to Umduduzi's presentation, Ragunathan said he was moved by Umduduzi's work.
"I appreciate the work of the dedicated doctors who are giving great service to children suffering from cancer and other terminal diseases. This is a moving experience which brought me down to earth about the problem in front of us. We try all in our power to support this cause. I am looking forward to co-operating with Umduduzi," said Ragunathan.
Umduduzi's presentation showed that there is a great need for palliative care but it was currently limited to few patients. It emerged that there was a need to train health workers on palliative care, especially the pediatric practitioners.
MEC Scott - a passionate campaigner for palliative care, said she could not stop thinking about scores of children who needed palliative care in the province.
"We thought we should come up with this networking initiative to drum up support for an unbelievable NGO, Umduduzi. We arranged to bring on board the Indian Consul and FutureLife. We know that India has the essential palliative care programmes, and FutureLife comes in handy because we are also dealing with nutrition and malnutrition of children. This has been a very productive meeting and I hope Umduduzi benefits optimally from this session," said Scott.
Speaking on behalf of FutureLife, Julika Falconer said palliative care is essential and said she could not do enough to support the cause. "I will give Umduduzi 100 kg of FutureLife food per month."
Dr Ambler described the meeting as fruitful. "We are beginning to see a real productive dialogue about what are the needs of chronically ill children in this country? And what we should be doing for them as the province? I am happy to see such a wonderful commitment in such high places."
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