An Irish humanitarian initiative, Hope on Wheels, has given Uganda 11 ambulances to improve emergency care for patients with cancer, HIV/AIDS and other palliative care needs.
While handing over the ambulances to the Ministry of Health on Tuesday, Mr Tom Doyle, HOW Board Chairperson, said the initiative was inspired by the late Dr Anne Merriman, the ‘mother of palliative care’ in Africa and founder of Kampala-based Hospice Africa Uganda. Mr Doyle, who founded one of Ireland’s biggest bakery businesses, said the plan to donate the ambulances was born in January 2025 over dinner with Dr Merriman, shortly before she died.
‘She suggested, could we get one ambulance for Hospice Africa Uganda? So we went back to Ireland, we thought about this, and we thought, let’s try to get maybe more than one ambulance and let’s look at more than one hospice,’ he narrated.
Mr Doyle explained that once their team adopted the bigger plan, they teamed up with the Palliative Care Association of Uganda and looked at the broader hospice community.
‘We decided to try something bigger. We approached the Irish National Ambulance Service, and we approached our fire service back in Ireland, and we found that once they heard of the need in Uganda, they also wanted to help,’ he said. ‘So they gave us these vehicles. The vehicles are some of them six or seven years old, some of them a little bit more than that, but they’ve been taken care of really well,’ he said.
He also recounted how the US-Iran war disrupted the first delivery plan and how volunteers sacrificed to mobilise resources and travel to Uganda.
‘And then two weeks ago, when we thought all of the challenges were dealt with, the ambulances were already sitting in the port in Mombasa, the news broke of Ebola in the DR Congo, but also some small number of cases in Uganda,’ he said. ‘And this then makes a big decision for our volunteers. Do you get on an aeroplane and travel to an area where you could become very, very ill or maybe bring back a virus back to Europe? But our volunteers were brave enough to come to Uganda,’ he added.
Dr Diana Atwine, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health, in a speech read by Dr Charles Olaro, Director General of Health Services, appreciated HOW and said the ambulances would be put to good use. Dr Olaro said the Ebola outbreak is under control and international travellers can come in and leave free from Ebola.
While receiving the ambulances, Dr Olaro also launched the Dr Anne Merriman Fund for Palliative Care in Uganda, an initiative aimed at bridging gaps in access to palliative care in the country.
According to the Palliative Care Association of Uganda, most Ugandans who need palliative care cannot access it due to a low number of professionals and limited facilities.
Dr Nixon Niyonzima, PCAU Board Chairperson, said the country requires at least 3,000 palliative care professionals but has only 350. The Ministry of Health says the ambulances will be distributed to different hospices, many run by charity organisations, across the country.