Based in Allen Town, a suburb on the eastern side of Freetown, the Shepherd's Hospice is unique in Sierra Leone as an organisation specialising in palliative care for the terminally ill.

The hospice does not operate in the same way as a traditional hospice in the UK. It does not have any beds and does not admit patients. Instead it provides support to families who wish to take home terminally ill patients and helps them provide palliative care at home.

As such they focus on chronic diseases such as HIV/AID's and cancer. They mainly treat symptomatically for pain but also treat opportunistic infections. Treatment is provided free although they do ask for voluntary contributions from those that can afford to pay.

They employ 2 Community Health Officers, 3 nurses and a community health nurse who visit patients in their homes and monitor their care, as well as ensuring they have the medicines that they require.

After a visit in February 2010 and we saw first hand the exemplary work that they do often in the face of overwhelming resistance, the Shepherd's Hospice has become a beneficiary of Inter Care.