Kindness that ensures quality care reaches people where it is needed
For people living with a life-limiting illness in Malawi, a diagnosis can bring fear, pain and uncertainty. For families living in poverty, access to the care and medicines they need can be extremely difficult. This is where the partnership between EMMS and the Palliative Care Association of Malawi (PACAM) makes such a difference.
PACAM is a national network of healthcare professionals and organisations working together to develop affordable palliative care across Malawi. Its aim is simple but profound: to ensure that people living with life-limiting illness can be free from pain and distress.
Working alongside PACAM and other Malawian partners, EMMS helped extend palliative care skills and expertise across Malawi, helping ensure that quality care could reach people far beyond the major cities.
Training a healthcare worker means their knowledge can benefit hundreds of patients over many years. Supporting a local organisation like PACAM means strengthening a Malawian-led network that can continue advocating for better palliative care long after an individual project ends.
It is the generous donations of our supporters that make this work possible. They invest in people, knowledge, healthcare systems and lasting change.
Lameck Frank Thambo is the Executive Director of PACAM. Lameck grew up in a small village in Chiradzulu, Malawi with his six brothers and sisters.
"My mother worked tirelessly to provide for our family, and she taught me to work hard, respect others and, above all, to pray to God."
As a child, Lameck was inspired by the doctors and nurses at his local hospital. He says they were professional, compassionate and always ready to help people in need. Inspired by their example, he dreamed of becoming a healthcare worker so that he could serve others in the same way.
Years later, working as a Clinical Officer with people living with HIV and cancer transformed his understanding of healthcare. He saw first-hand that people suffer not only from disease, but also from stigma, loneliness and a loss of hope.
"I learned something that has stayed with me ever since: Patients need love, hope and empathy."
Over the past year, EMMS has helped PACAM reach people in some of Malawi's most remote communities. Together, we are ensuring that people facing serious and life-limiting illnesses can access palliative care, pain relief and compassionate support close to home.
Thanks to the donations from EMMS supporters we are beginning an important programme to improve access to pain medications in rural communities, helping people with severe pain to receive the relief they need.
"Imagine that someone you love is living with advanced cancer and is in terrible pain. Your husband or wife. Your son or daughter. Your grandchild. What would you want for them? You would want someone to come. You would want them to have medicine to control their pain. You would want someone to listen, to care and to give them hope."
Thank you for standing with us. Thank you for seeing the humanity we share. And please, if you are able, continue to give to EMMS and help us ensure that no one facing a life-limiting illness has to face their pain alone.
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