In 2022, Ndi Moyo started a unique palliative care online case conferencing project. The aim is to allow palliative care providers across Malawi to share their knowledge, discuss cases, and support each other.
Ndi Moyo initially provided tablets to 4 sites across Malawi, where healthcare professionals had attended Ndi Moyo’s palliative care initiators’ course. Staff from St Peter’s Hospital in Likoma, Mulanje Mission Hospital, Zomba Central Hospital, and Kamuzu Central Hospital Cancer Centre met online with Ndi Moyo every 2 weeks, with one site presenting a palliative care case for discussion at each meeting. Power cuts and network problems are all too common in Malawi, but thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Ndi Moyo team and participating sites, the project has still been a huge success.
In October 2023, we were able to expand the project to a further six sites. Healthcare professionals from Kasina Health Centre, K2 TASO in Kasungu, Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Kamuzu Barracks Hospital, Ekwedeni Mission Hospital and Mchinji District Hospital attended a 2-day training course in Salima to learn how to use the tablets and produce case presentations. Since then, we’ve had 11 sites successfully attending our fortnightly case conference! The Ndi Moyo team can therefore provide ongoing mentorship to sites trained through the initiators’ course, support them with difficult cases, and learn from them too.
And of course, we’re not stopping there. The feedback from sites involved has been amazingly positive, and we’ve got more looking to join in. So, we’re looking for funds to buy more tablets and expand to 20 sites attending in 2024.
Presenting this work internationally.
In the last few months, we are proud to announce that Ndi Moyo was represented in two international conferences, through sponsorship by Ndi Moyo UK:
The 8th African Palliative Care Conference, was held in Gaborone, Botswana from September 23rd to 26th, 2025 and attended by Rex Chinzu, one of our palliative care nurses. Rex was selected to give a short presentation on Ndi Moyo’s Virtual Case Conferencing across Malawi. This drew attention to the advantages of using virtual technology for mentoring our students trained in palliative care and now working across the country, allowing them to discuss difficult cases and treatment strategies.
The conference was attended by Ministers of Health from all over Africa, who gave a commitment to the ongoing development of palliative care on the continent.
The 15th African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) Conference was held in Hammamet, Tunisia, from 2nd to 5th November 2025 under the theme: ‘Advancing Cancer Care Across Africa: Equity Through Empowering Research and Education.’ This was attended by Dominic Kangachepe, Palliative Care Training Manager at Ndi Moyo, who presented a poster on the same project.
The initial pilot for this project began in October 2022 with just four sites participating (Likoma, National Cancer Centre, Mulanje Mission Hospital, and Zomba Central Hospital). Between 2023 and 2024, it was scaled up to include an additional sixteen sites, bringing the total to 20, and this is shortly to be increased further.
Each week, Ndi Moyo and the participating sites jointly discuss real palliative care cases, sharing challenges, insights, and best practices. Reported benefits include:
- Improved communication and collaboration among palliative care providers
- Increased confidence and clinical competence in case management
- Enhanced access to specialist input, particularly for remote and under-resourced areas
Not only did these conferences enable Ndi Moyo to showcase its work, but important networking gave the opportunity to learn of innovations and to share knowledge and skills as well as discover possible future contacts and funding sources.
The AORTIC conference, for example, drew attention to a rapid test for cervical cancer prevention and the use of educational videos to increase cancer awareness, while APCA gave the opportunity of presenting Ndi Moyo’s work in front of Malawi government officials, including the Director of Nursing and Midwifery Services, the Palliative Care Desk Officer, and the Palliative Care Association of Malawi.
All we can learn will help our patients and improve our care.
