Stella Mwari Rithara, RN, of Kenya has been working to raise awareness about supportive and palliative care, as well as cancer prevention and treatment, in Kenya. At the 2017 MASCC/ISOO Annual Meeting, Stella was awarded the Cynthia N. Rittenberg Travel Scholarship, which recognizes the highest-ranking nurse applicant among those applying for a MASCC Travel Scholarship to the Annual Meeting. Stella is a palliative care nurse and lecturer at the Kenya Medical Training College in Nairobi, Kenya. She is also Founder and Director of Ongata Ngong Palliative Care Community, a community-based organization that provides education, palliative care services, and home visits.
In recognition of Cancer Awareness Week in October, she invited other professionals to join her in a three-day project. On the first day, two community health education workers, a social worker, a nurse, a pastor, and two caregivers joined in. The team visited Ngarusha village in Kajiado County to help educate local health workers. On the second day, a team consisting of two palliative care nurses, a counselor, and a social worker visited Cornerstone Deliverance Church in Inyonyori village, Maasailand, also in Kajiado County. Here, they discussed cancer issues with members of the congregation, enlisted community health workers to be trained in palliative care, and paid a call on a sick woman in her village. On the third day, Stella and a breast cancer survivor visited prison officers to promote cancer awareness and educate them about supportive and palliative care. While most admitted that palliative care is a new term to them, they nevertheless embraced the idea of supporting residents during illness and treatment. Stella told us that the week was fruitful and the teams learned that there is still much education and coordination to be done. She invites all MASCC members, especially the Education Study Group, to help with ideas on how to reach more communities with information about cancer prevention, treatment, and supportive and palliative care.
