Frequently Asked Questions

History and founder

The Morris Moses Foundation is the founder of the Patient Solidarity Day initiative. They launched this campaign as way of assisting suffering patients during the 2011 doctors strike and was observed by both Kenya and Uganda. The Foundation's main objective is the introduction and adoption of a Patient Centered Care Approach to Health Care, and they run various programs in order to achieve this goal. IAPO and it's members saw the incredible value in holding an annual day to call for patient-centred healthcare and thus have supported and adopted the initiative as an important event in our calendar. IAPO have worked closely with the Morris Moses Foundation, and thank them for their dedicated work in patient-centred healthcare and advocating for patients' rights, as well as for being the founder of such a powerful, uniting initiative as Patient Solidarity Day. 

Please read here for further history about Morris Moses Foundation and the history of Patient Solidarity Day. 

Date

Previously, IAPO members celebrated Patient Solidarity Day on 30 October, as this was the date selected by the Steering Committee made up of IAPO members from across Africa. The founder, the Morris Moses Foundation hold Patient Solidarity Day on the second Saturday of December each year, as this date falls after all other health or disease related days, and therefore helps to highlight the need for all patients, regardless of disease or condition, culture, or country, to unite together to highlight the need for patient-centred healthcare. In order to align closer to the founder, IAPO has moved Patient Solidarity Day to 6 December in 2014, to promote the importance of the day, and celebrate the initiative and the hard work of its founder, as well as knowledge the need for all patients to unite. 

The logo and the gesture

How do people show agreement with one another? They shake hands. How do people go even further and say, in an open and public way, “We are together!”? They interlock their fingers. It’s a universally accepted gesture, something that is recognisable all over the world in many languages and cultures. IAPO and our members, along patients everywhere, want this human symbol of unity and solidarity to be recognisable all over the world in the call for Universal Health Coverage. For more information about the logo, and how to use it and hold hands, please read here. 

What can I do to show my solidarity?

There are lots of simple or grand gestures you can do to show your support of Patient Solidarity Day!