Four Seasons Efforts to Improve Palliative Care in Zambia Featured in Documentary

ASHEVILLE, N.C., Sept. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- A premiere screening of "A Unified Presence," a short documentary film featuring Four Seasons Compassion for Life, Flat Rock, and its cross-continental partnership with the Palliative Care Association of Zambia is slated for Tuesday, October 15, at Asheville Community Theater, 6:30-9 p.m.

The Zambian partnership formed in 2011 to provide support to a country with limited access to this compassionate form of medical care. Then, in 2013, Four Seasons sent a medical mission team to Zambia to assist with care, develop strategy, and create a mutual vision to increase the reach of the Palliative Care Association of Zambia. For more information, visit http://www.fourseasonscfl.org .

Zambia is in the sub-Saharan, southern region of Africa.

Four Seasons partners with PCAZ because their missions align, according to Janet Bull, M.D., chief medical officer, who helped formulate the partnership.

"The partnership focuses on improving access to quality palliative life care throughout Zambia," says Bull, who donated a 2012 Cunniff Dixon Foundation award of $25,000 to train and educate Zambian nurses and physicians to this end.

On average, Zambians have a life expectancy of 48 years, about half that of North Carolinians, and high incidences of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and cancer. With fewer than 800 doctors nationwide, expert consensus is that the country's medical system remains ill-equipped to take care of the needs of the seriously ill and dying. 

Filmed on location in Zambia and North Carolina by Emmy award-winning Asheville filmmakers Dylan and Melanie Trivette, "A Unified Presence" highlights the collaborative effort of the two agencies to improve access to quality palliative care during serious, life-limiting illness or at end of life for individuals throughout Zambia.

For more information about Four Seasons Compassion for Life, Flat Rock, and its work in Zambia, visit http://www.fourseasonscfl.org .

"A Unified Presence" premieres Tuesday, October 15, 2013 at Asheville Community Theater, from 6:30-9 p.m. The event includes the screening, a reception and discussion with filmmakers and members of the Four Seasons-Zambia partnership team. Tickets are available online, www.zambiafundraiser.com or at the door, $25.

VIDEO: A Unified Presence Trailer: http://vimeo.com/75215169

* PHOTO 72dpi: Send2Press.com/mediaboom/13-0926-unified_400x300.jpg

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SOURCE Four Seasons Compassion For Life