World Hospice Day 2014 at Sparsh Hospice, Hyderabad

Sparsh Hospice invites "friends of sparsh" volunteers on occasion of World Hospice Day.

~US Consul General Michael Mullins visits sparsh and interacts with caregivers & volunteers ~

Hyderabad 11th October 2014: Sparsh Hospice, the first hospice care solution in Hyderabad, today marked the 'World Hospice Day' occasion at its center in Road no 12, Banjara Hills. 'Friends of Sparsh' volunteer enrollment program was launch on this day by Honble US Consul General Michael Mullins. The volunteers will primarily be expected to help spread awareness of palliative care and end of life care needs and join the charity programs and fund raising of the trust. The beneficiaries will be terminally ill cancer patients who avail free of cost medical care at Sparsh Hospice.

Sparsh Hospice is the first of its kind (hospice center) in Telangana/Andhra Pradesh with a motto and vision of "adding life to living". It was founded by the members of the Rotary Club of Banjara Hills. Sparsh is a charitable palliative care center in treating terminally ill patients. The non - profit organization provides medical care such as bedding, medicines, basic treatment, and human care etc to terminally ill patients whose medical treatment for incurable illnesses have been stopped. Hospice was an idea of few prominent doctors, businessmen and philanthropists from the city which along with the help of the Rotary Club members from Banjara Hills gave shape to Sparsh Hospice in 2011. So far Sparsh has cared for 500 patients and has the capacity to serve 12 patients at any given time.

Rotarian Anup Agarwal, President of 'Rotary Club of Banjara Hills' said, "Sparsh has made a very meaningful impact on the end of life care for more than 500 terminally ill patients and their families providing dignity, peace and pain free end to unfortunate victims of cancer."
Honble US Consul General Michael Mullins said "It is the tremendous dedication and compassion from the team of doctors, nurses, support staff, administrators and the many volunteers who are part of this quality care that is commendable. I invite more youngsters to volunteer as a Friend of Sparsh and support the cause of Hospice & Palliative care." On this occasion Consul General Mullins launched
the revised website of Sparsh www.sparshhospice.org and endorsed the "friends of sparsh" volunteer program.

Dr Subramanyam M , President of the Governing Body said " Members of Society and businesses have made generous contributions helping us keep all our services free to patients. We are looking forward to raise a corpus fund to build a larger permanent facility which can house nearly 100 patients in phases. The 'friends of Sparsh' program is also promoted by Cricketer WS Laxman who himself is involved in raising awareness for palliative care. Prospective donors and volunteers are requested to visit and see the quality of services rendered to the patients. We conduct a lot of online and offline events to spread awareness and raise funds for Sparsh Hospice. Volunteers can also support patient care like singing to them or just helping fulfil their wishes or counseling."

Mr .Jagadish Ramadugu , secretary of the Governing Body thanked the volunteers and the media for attending the World Hospice Day celebrations.

About Hospice - Hospices are medical care centers which aim at caring for the patients and not curing their illness. The centers are usually run by non-profit organizations and provide a host of services such as bedding, pain relief, companionship, human care and basic medical facilities.
About World Hospice & Palliative Care Day


To share our vision to increase the availability of hospice and palliative care throughout the world by creating opportunities to speak out about the issues

To raise awareness and understanding of the needs - medical, social, practical, spiritual - of people living with a life limiting illness and their families

To raise funds to support and develop hospice and palliative care services around the world

See www.worlddav.ora for more information.