The following organisations feature prominently in Zambia:

Catholic Archdiocese of Lusaka

Is the managing agent of the Mother of Mercy Hospice in Chilanga. There are 52 home based care services managed under this organisation but little interaction between them and other organisations.

Zambian Palliative Care Association

An informal national association was developed some years ago mainly linking Mother of Mercy Hospice and Jon Hospice. A palliative care conference and inaugural meeting of the Association was held in June 2004 with the aim of improving networking and interaction between the various hospices around the country.

Power of Love Foundation

A non-government organisation based in San Diego that seeks to minimise the impact of HIV/ AIDS. A survey of hospices in Zambia was conducted in October 2004, each one visited in person by Robert Sihubwa. The organisation is involved in a number of projects in Zambia and intends to open a new, low cost hospice in association with the Anglican Children’s Project.

Land for the hospice has been donated by the community and zoned for construction. The hospice will be built on lessons learned from a study of best practices among hospices. The focus will be on leveraging technology and lessons-learned to hit our target capital and operating costs. The hospice will operate an OPC (out-patient clinic) on site. The hospice will operate a mobile-clinic to specific areas within the target communities to: Provide neighbourhood-based medical response to the sick children; Support the community health workers; Follow up with cases discharged from the care-centre.²⁰

The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund²¹

The Diana Fund has formed the view that palliative care plays a vital role in the management of life-limiting illness. In particular, palliative care is ideally suited to home based care; it makes use of affordable drugs and it empowers the family to care for their members more effectively.

In 2001, the Diana Fund launched a palliative care initiative which focused on nine countries in sub-Saharan Africa ( Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and committed an initial £5 million over 5 years. The Fund does not implement palliative care programmes; rather, it supports locally-based partners who are already implementing programmes or who wish to incorporate palliative care into existing home based care services.

The visit by Anne Lloyd-Williams in 2001 and the collating of country information^{22 23} by Faith Mwangi-Powell highlighted the challenges faced by palliative care activists in Zambia. At this time, despite the hospice programmes currently operational, specialist knowledge of palliative care seemed sparse. Crucially, there was a lack of enthusiasm from government, which appeared sceptical of the benefits of hospice care. In this scenario, the Diana Fund turned to Hospice Africa Uganda as an appropriate organisation which could assist with advocacy and training. Issues related to the adoption of a palliative care policy; access to pain relieving drugs - including morphine - and an improved standard of palliative care in health referral centres. A team from Hospice Africa Uganda visited Zambia in February 2004 and in its report to the Diana Fund, included key recommendations in the areas of education, drugs availability and government policy against a 3 year time scale.

Alongside this initiative, the Diana Fund has awarded grants to:

• Kara Counselling and Training Trust – for Jon Hospice, Lusaka to contribute to the provision of residential palliative care and to support outreach teams in 3 districts
  
• Mother of Mercy Hospice – a) to support the provision of home based care for the terminally ill, inpatient care, and support for orphans (1 year, £15,000) b) to buy a vehicle for home based care; to develop a more reliable and continuous supply of drugs and equipment; to improve training for their own staff (3 years, £78,000)

• Ndola Ecumenical Hospice Association – funding for salaries, volunteer incentives, fuel for home based care work and general running costs, including refresher training for volunteers for the palliative care programme (3 years, £60,000)

Hospice of Illinois (USA) is twinned with Ranchhod House, Kabwe.