Our Lady’s Hospice gets new solar geysers for the wards

Our Lady’s Hospice was founded in 2001 in Kalingalinga, a neighborhood of Lusaka, Zambia, when caregivers were first trained for a Home-Based Care program for people suffering from HIV/ AIDS.

Kalingalinga is one of the poorest areas of Lusaka and has a population of around 200,000 – 250,000 people.  The public hospitals are overflowing with terminally ill patients, and there is a need to house and care for these patients.

The Zambia Delegation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate was one of the four religious congregations involved in building the Hospice that helps providing palliative end-of-life care for patients with HIV/AIDS.

The first inpatients were admitted in 2003.  Free Anti-Retroviral drugs came in 2004 and revolutionized the care that the Hospice offers to HIV+ clients.

Today, the hospice runs an Outpatient Clinic, a Children’s Clinic, and offers inpatient services through 30 beds spread across wards – St Joseph (male ward), St Anne (female ward), St Clare (income generating high cost ward), St Jude (semi private), and Maluba House (Children’s ward).

St Joseph and St Anne are the general wards, and patients admitted to these wards are provided with clinical and nursing care, meals and drugs for a nominal fee that does not cover the cost of care.  Also, a hostel has been built for volunteers to stay in.

The Oblate Partnership also ssisted the Hospice to obtain a grant for $5,000 to purchase and install geysers to provide hot water for showers in the male ward and the hostel, all other wards already had hot water.

The geysers are now installed and working well and the patients are benefiting tremendously from the availability of running hot water.