Message from the Chair
&
Executive Director
Kathleen M. Foley, MD (USA)
Liliana De Lima, MHA (USA)
Dear readers:
By the end of this year, six of our Board members will be completing their terms, they are Nessa Coyle (USA); Paulina Taboada (Chile); KS Chan (Hong Kong); Joseph Child (USA); Irene Higginson (UK); and Janet Jones (USA). Please join us in thanking each of them for their contributions to IAHPC and their efforts in helping the organization achieve its mission. It has been an honor for us to have been able to work with these members of the Board, all extraordinary palliative care individuals and professionals.
As many of you know, we had an open call for members to nominate candidates to these positions. We received 15 nominations of excellent candidates – thank you all! New directors will be announced at the end of this month.
Remember that we are accepting applications for the three IAHPC Awards until December 31 st, they are for Individuals (the Vittorio Ventafridda Award); Institutions and Universities. The awards provide a prize of US $2,000 for each category. If you are interested in nominating an individual, institution or university, there are still some days left. Additional information on how to apply is available in our website at http://www.hospicecare.com/Awards/awardsindex.htm or go to www.hospicecare.com and click on IAHPC Programs and select Recognition Awards. The IAHPC Awards program is a great tool to recognize those who are doing things correctly around the world.
World AIDS Day was celebrated on December 1 and many activities were carried out around the globe that focused on education, increased awareness, and programs.
According to the United Nations, the data show that AIDS is increasing:
• 40.3 million people are now living with HIV worldwide (17.5 million are women)
• Close to 5 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2005
• During the course of the year, 3.1 million died of AIDS; of these, one-half million were children
• Almost 26 million people in Sub Saharan Africa are now living with HIV
At IAHPC we support the celebration of the Day and the call for governments, individuals and institutions to include palliative care as a component of care for patients with HIV/AIDS. Access to treatment including palliative care should be a priority for governments. Additional information about the UNAIDS program can be found in http://www.unaids.org
As the year ends, we are very proud of the many things we were able to accomplish through our programs and projects and of the support we provided to developing countries. We spent almost US $300,000 this year in programs and projects around the globe.
Some highlights of the programs and things we accomplished during 2005 are as follows:
• Through the Clearing House Program we sent over 4 tons of donated books and journals to more than 400 programs, libraries and hospitals in developing countries;
• We supported individuals who spent time teaching palliative care in Cuba , Kenya , India and Sudan with the IAHPC Traveling Fellowship program
• Through the Traveling Scholarship program, IAHPC paid the travel of palliative care leaders from Colombia , Guatemala , Nepal , Romania and Uruguay to attend seminars, congresses and training courses in Germany , USA , Spain and Korea . In India , IAHPC is supporting 10 students per year from all over the country to attend the Palliative Care training seminar in Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi , Kerala.
• Through the Faculty Development Program we are now supporting palliative care faculty positions in Tanzania , Argentina and India and are in the process of approving two more in developing countries.
• The IAHPC website at www.hospicecare.com is registering almost 12,000 hits per day and almost 1,000 daily visitors. The site has hundreds of pages of information which are constantly updated by Alou Web Design. All the pages are free and are accessed by more than 1,000 readers every day from all corners of the globe.
Additional information about these and other IAHPC Programs is available in our IAHPC Programs page in our website at www.hospicecare.com
We are seeking individuals and organizations to support IAHPC. We have a very lean organization which enables us to spend most of your donated funds on programs at the grass root level. Our ability to keep helping others relies heavily on your support, so please consider donating to IAHPC. You can donate through our website or contact our office for more information.
This is our last Newsletter for 2005. It is a time to reflect on the work we have done and the plans we have for the future. Our strong commitment to supporting the development of palliative care around the world will continue to be our driving force. We wish to thank all those who make our work worthwhile - the patients and their families, the health care workers, and the volunteers who dedicate and give so much to palliative care.
We could not have been able to achieve the above without the generous support of our board of directors, our members, companies, foundations and organizations which believe in IAHPC’s mission and in our ability to have an impact in the promotion and development of palliative care.
We hope you enjoy your holidays and wish you the best for the upcoming year.
Until next month,
Kathy Foley, MD
Chair, Board of Directors
Liliana De Lima, MHA
Executive Director
© 2005 IAHPC Press 
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