Effective communication is essential for the optimal delivery of healthcare services. In developing countries, family members typically shoulder a great deal of the burden of caring for patients. Families serve as caregivers, provide food and transport, and pay bills. The contributions of family members at end-of-life are thus crucial to the plan of care in low- and middle-income countries. In an effort to create a formal model of end-of-life care that is suitable to the Rwandan context, we must begin by understanding the suffering of families and the community at the end of life.  
The aim of this workshop is to teach a practical guide developed in Rwanda to understand the language of suffering expressed by patients’ families to optimize communication at end-of-life care.
We observed and described the behavior of more than seven hundred meetings of healthcare staff with family members and patient caregivers in hospitals, hospices, and at home.
We developed a framework called “Safari,” which means “Journey” in Swahili, based on a Rwandan social-cultural approach to decode the language of suffering from families and caregivers during family meetings. Twelve animal archetypes were used to describe families’ suffering behaviors, language, and expectations. The framework has helped healthcare providers improve their understanding of and communication with families.