The Agrace HospiceCare. & Meru Hospice Partnership

What is Meru Hospice?

Located approximately 150 miles northeast of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, Meru Hospice has been serving its community since 2000. Its mission is similar to that of Agrace HospiceCare: to give physical, psychological and emotional support to the dying and their relatives because “they too matter.”

In 2010 Meru Hospice’s three nurses and eight additional staff members provided palliative (comfort) care to nearly 1,500 patients, 63 percent of which have cancer and 37 percent who are living with HIV/AIDS). With impassable roads during the rainy seasons in Kenya, many Meru-area patients or their family members walk miles to the clinic for care. Those patients who are too ill to come to the clinic are visited by nurses in their homes.

The Meru Hospice staff maintains a large kitchen garden that is used to provide healthy food to many families, as well as to teach nutrition. Day care and free meals are also offered to families who come to the clinic.

Despite the many challenges they face, Meru Hospice confronts these hardships with determination and optimism. In November 2010 nearly 500 people from the community participated in a fundraising walk, collecting $3,000 for use in patient care. In addition, the hospice has developed a maize mill that will provide ongoing revenue and help Meru Hospice toward its long-range goal of becoming self-sustaining.

Agrace HospiceCare./Meru Hospice Partnership

The partnership between these two hospices is a grassroots effort born of one staff member’s trip to Meru in 2003. A social worker, she was struck by the tremendous need she saw there, so she returned determined to do something about it.

At first funds were raised through bake sales run by a volunteer committee. Since then the effort has grown. Agrace HospiceCare staff, volunteers and community members donate their time to coordinate fundraisers and to provide technical support. Since 2005, Agrace HospiceCare. employees have contributed nearly $50,000 to Meru Hospice through annual payroll deductions. These funds, plus three $25,000 grants from the Caritas Foundation in Madison, have not only helped to pay for operational costs and medical supplies, but have also purchased a vehicle for Meru, sponsored continuing education for staff, provided start-up money for the maize mill and established the kitchen garden.

Since that first trip by one staff member in 2003, more than 20 people have made the trip to Meru, often at their own expense. Each time extra luggage has been stuffed with medical supplies—resources that the Meru Hospice staff stretch to comfort as many patients as possible.

You, Too, Can Help

To learn more about the Meru Hospice and how their staff are making a difference in Kenya, visit their website at www.meruhospice.or.ke.