Project Hamrahi update

Aizawl, Mizoram

Ed Gaudoin and Anil Tandon travelled to Aizawl, Mizoram in March 2019 to support Dr Sanghluna Renthlei and his team at Synod Hospital. This was their first visit to this remote state in India’s far north-east region, but they were accompanied by Shalini AJ, Project Officer with Pallium India, for whom this was her fifth visit to Aizawl, although in the intervening months sadly Shalini has resigned from Pallium India. We will all miss her expertise.

Mizoram is a unique part of India. Located in the remote north-east, the state is mountainous, culturally homogeneous, with an almost universally Christian population. In Mizoram the prevalence of HIV / AIDS is high, as is substance abuse (both alcohol and injectable use of heroin). Synod Hospital operates the free-standing Grace House for patients with HIV / AIDS as well as K Ward for patients with substance abuse patients (K being the abbreviation for Khawngaihna, meaning ‘Grace’ in the Mizo language).

As with so many of the Project Hamrahi visits, Ed and Anil returned to Australia probably having learnt more from the local team than they were able to educate in return. A particular highlight was being able to witness the depth and breadth of Sanghluna’s clinical experience and standing in the community.

Establishing the palliative care service in 2016, he had foresight to incorporate the philosophy of palliative care into the care provided for HIV and substance abuse patients. These patients are not ‘traditional’ palliative care patients but the care provided to them – and their very real needs – align very closely with the recently developed definition of palliative care proposed by the International Association of Hospice and Palliative Care: ‘the active holistic care of individuals across all ages with serious health-related suffering due to severe illness’.

Their complete visit report can be found here: