Krebsallianz and The International Children’s Palliative Care Network
The Pain Scale App and Palliative Training in Rwanda.
This year Krebsallianz will be supporting the ICPCN and their work with children in dire need of palliative care. 21 million children worldwide are living with life-limiting or life-shortening conditions. Barely 1% of these children are receiving the necessary palliative care and the majority of them are living in the developing world. For these children, as the disease or condition progresses, unnecessary pain and suffering will occur, including physical, spiritual and emotional suffering.
ICPCN believes that palliative care for children is a human right. At Krebsallianz, we believe that no child should suffer because they are poor. The new collaboration with ICPCN aims to uphold that belief. Their latest project, The Child Pain Scale, will be developed into an app with the help of Krebsallianz.
Previously ICPCN has used images of faces to help children describe their levels of pain. Health professionals usually administer the pain scales which are often complicated and difficult to read for kids. The new Child Pain Scale app can be used by children with cancer and other life-limiting diseases with their carers and families. This friendly and interactive pain scale tracks individual pain levels over a period of time on a graph by recording the date, time and severity of the pain. With Krebsallianz’s funding the ICPCN can develop this communicative service. It will serve children all over the world and improve palliative care services.
The International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN) was founded in 2005 and became a registered as a charity in 2011. Over the past decade the charity has advocated for the needs of children’s palliative care around the world. The charity is registered in both the UK and South Africa however their work takes them all over the world with an enormous number of projects in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Their work includes awareness raising, knowledge collaboration, training and skills development – all contributing to give children the best palliative care that they need. ICPCN aims to give child patients the best quality of life who suffering from life-limiting conditions, such as cancer. The ICPCN works closely with the families and carers of these patients to raise awareness and share expertise in the care of children in need of palliative services. 
In addition to the Child Pain Scale, Krebsallianz will be working in Rwanda on a training program with ICPCN. This training project will be a continuation of palliative training in conjunction with Makerere University Palliative Care Unit (MPCU). This new training program subsidized by Krebsallianz will help develop palliative care across the country and train health professional from a range of hospitals in palliative care for children with cancer and other conditions.
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