The Zimbabwe Rural Palliative Care Initiative is a program to increase access and expand palliative care in rural Zimbabwe. The goal was to add palliative care to existing home-based care teams comprising indigenous rural volunteers. Palliative care expertise is being developed through training and ongoing mentorship provided by Island Hospice Service, headquartered in the capital city of Harare. Specific outcomes relative to palliative care are reported, using the African Palliative Care Association African Palliative Outcome Scale, the Karnofsky Performance Scale, and a Supervision and Mentorship Checklist. Positive impact is documented, and there is significant opportunity for similar outcomes on a national scale.

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Oral mucositis is a common, debilitating complication of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy, occurring in about 40 percent cases. Mucositis may limit the patient’s ability to tolerate chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and nutrition status is compromised. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of Indian turmeric powder with honey as a complementary therapy on treatment induced oral mucositis. In the study, quasi experimental nonequivalent control group pre test post-test design was used and non-probability purposive sampling technique was adopted to select 60 cancer patients with treatment induced oral mucositis, 30 each in experimental and control group. The independent ’t’ value for post-test 2 and 3 (post-test 2: 2.86 for WHO OMAS and 4.58 for MPJ OMAS, post test 2: 5.42 for WHO OMAS and 7.2 for MPJ OMAS; p<0.05) were significant between experimental and control group. It is inferred that the application of Indian turmeric and honey on treatment-induced oral mucositis is effective.

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