WORTHY CAUSES

Rachel House

The dream to build a safe haven to care for children with life-limiting conditions marked the launch of Rachel House and the plans for building Indonesia’s first purpose-built children’s hospice. The service was piloted as a threebed inpatient hospice, however, Rachel House heard the pleas of children wanting to stay home to be close to their family and friends. That’s when their nurses traded their uniforms for helmets and jackets to travel the crowded streets of Jakarta to reach these children in their homes. Rachel House provides specialised medical care ( known as palliative care) to children from marginalised communities living with serious illnesses such as cancer and HIV AIDS. Established in 2006, they have pioneered palliative care in Indonesia. Driven by the belief that no child should ever have to live or die in pain, their highly-skilled nurses provide home-based care to children from some of the most marginalised communities in Jakarta, free of charge. They also educate and equip medical professionals and local communities with palliative care skills and knowledge to provide care for those in desperate need. Twelve years and more than 500 children later, Rachel House is now an acknowledged leader in home-based pediatric palliative care service in Jakarta. Their nurses have become the “model” nurses invited to share their knowledge at major hospitals and nursing faculties, and participate in difficult case discussions at some of the largest national referral hospitals in Indonesia. In addition to palliative care services, Rachel House also offers quality education programs, practical training and mentoring for health professionals across a variety of patient care settings. They also work closely with organisations and professionals that provide services to patient’s whose lives are threatened by an illness. This includes national and district hospitals, puskesmas and university nursing schools. Training is provided through the collective knowledge and experience of leaders and specialists in the field including the Rachel House senior Registered Nurses, local Indonesia palliative care specialists, and visiting palliative care experts from Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, India, and South Africa. For more information on how to donate, become a partner or volunteer, visit www.rachel-house.org