(December 21st 2016) The mission of St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor – one of the largest non-profit hospitals in equatorial Africa – is to ensure, particularly to the most needy, affordable medical services. The hospital is the only reference center for North Uganda and South Sudan and is perpetually overcrowded: in the pediatric oncology ward are welcomed and cared about 150 children a year but the beds are only twenty. Non-profit organization “Soleterre – Peace Strategies” collaborates with the medical provider through its shelter, with the goal of helping to raise the survival rates of sick children. Soleterre provides short-term accommodation to children who do not require hospitalization and their families, freeing beds for new patients so they can receive care and treatment. Each child can remain in the structure for a variable number of days according to the therapy and check-up which has to undergo, going to the hospital only for treatments and visits. In this environment, families receive psychosocial support needed to cope with the disease. Every year in Uganda are diagnosed approximately 1,650 new cases of childhood cancer, but the mortality rate reaches approximately 80%. The main causes of so high mortality are the lack of adequate treatmentsat affordable costs, combined with a limited number of reference centers and trained staff. Many patients come from remote areas and the poorest families can not afford the rent of a room for the period of care and are forced to crowd in the ward and in the hospital corridors. (Red)
