Help Turn Research Into Relief for Millions of Africans in Pain
Right now, across Africa, people are living their final months in pain that could be managed, and their families are making impossible choices about care they cannot access. Not because the treatments don't exist, but because too few health systems know how, or have the budget, to deliver them. That gap does not close on its own. It closes when someone proves what works and makes decision-makers listen.
By 2060, the number of people facing this kind of serious health-related suffering in Africa is projected to more than double, from 3.37 million in 2016 to 7.61 million. The Africa Centre of Excellence for Palliative Care Research and Knowledge Translation, launched by APCA in September 2025, exists to close that gap before it grows any wider.
Why Research Funding Matters
Evidence is what changes what governments are willing to pay for. Right now, most African governments spend little or nothing specific on palliative care, so families cover the cost themselves or go without. That is not because leaders do not care. It is because no one has handed them the proof they need to act: how many people need this care, what it costs to deliver, and what happens when it is missing. Every study the Centre funds is built to answer exactly those questions.
APCA has already helped more than 25 African countries integrate palliative care into their national health systems. This Centre is what lets that work scale. It trains cohorts of postdoctoral researchers under senior mentors, and those researchers go on to mentor the next cohort themselves: a training of trainers model built to multiply expertise, not just pass it along once. Modular courses in grant writing and research methods, plus ten cross country working groups where researchers trade real solutions to real problems, create a genuine environment of skills exchange that keeps evidence flowing long after any single grant ends.
Your gift funds the five-year, $1.6 million effort behind this work: training researchers, generating locally-led evidence, and launching the continent's first dedicated palliative care journal so findings do not just sit in a drawer.
Where Your Gift Goes
$150: Pays for data collection in a live regional palliative care research study.
$500: Trains an African researcher in one of the Centre's grant-writing and research-methods courses, skills they go on to pass to others in their own institution.
$1,500: Gives an early-career African researcher their first funded project through a Research Seed Grant.
$5,000: Funds a full year of one-on-one postdoctoral mentorship, pairing a young researcher with a senior expert who is training them to mentor the next cohort in turn.
Give Now
Every gift, at any size, funds evidence that helps relieve pain no one should have to face alone.
The Five-Year Investment
| Year | Budget | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $179,630 | Foundation and setup |
| 2027 | $447,465 | Capacity building expansion |
| 2028 | $468,740 | Full operations and journal launch |
| 2029 | $207,115 | Consolidation |
| 2030 | $314,870 | Sustainability and scale |
Backed by a Global Research Network
This is not a solo effort. The Centre works inside a network of 29 research partnerships with institutions including Stanford University, King's College London, the University of Cape Town, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, and Makerere University, guided by an advisory board of leading African and international palliative care experts.
Prefer to get involved as a researcher instead? Learn about joining the Research Network.