Chimwemwe Chipenge easily remembers the date of the diagnosis that saved her daughter’s life: June 31, 2014.

That was the day Chimwemwe told clinicians with Abwenzi Pa Za Umoyo, as Partners In Health (PIH) is known in Malawi, that her young daughter, Sheila, “was getting smaller, losing loads of weight,” and experiencing dizziness, headaches and frequent urination. The clinicians diagnosed Sheila, now 14, with type 1 diabetes.

To help people suffering from long-term debilitating illnesses, Partners In Health partnered with the Malawian Ministry of Health and the Palliative Care Support Trust, a charity based in Blantyre, to launch a palliative care program in 2012 in Malawi’s remote southern district of Neno. Since its inception, the program has provided clinic- and home-based care to 225 patients living with health conditions such as Kaposi sarcoma, cervical cancer, hypertension and stroke, and liver cirrhosis.