NEWSLETTER Newsletter Volume 33/no. 2/December 2015
In this issue, among others: • Community Site Visits p5 • Laetitia Rispel p10 • Our Brand New Team p11
Editorial Dear Readers, With the risk of repeating myself - what a great conference it was once again! Excellent organization, great venue, inspiring scientific program, eye opening com-munity site visits and, of course, amazing cultural evenings including the mandatory dancing! And, as if this wasn’t enough, a lot of important decisions were made. Not only a new Secretary General and Vice-Secretary General were chosen, also five new Regional Representatives and a new Chair! The future looks bright! Read all about our new team on page 11. Of course, a new team means we have to say goodbye to some people too, but luckily they will stay involved in the Network: TUFH family! I want to thank especially our former Secretary General, Jan De Maeseneer, for his great support in putting together so many previous newsletters! You have been a great source of inspiration! Enjoy your reading! Julie Vanden Bulcke
In the Newsletter, we refer to The Network: Towards Unity for Health as The Network: TUFH.
Contents Message from the Former Secretary General From Beirut, Paris, Bamako‌ to the Sustainable Development Goals
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Conference Flashbacks Annual International Conference
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Looking Back to Gauteng; Looking Forward to China Bambani Poster Winners
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Community Site Visits Chiawelo Community Health Centre and Soweto Zama Zama Community and Daspoort Student Clinic Mamelodi
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Students Report
Great Stories from Great People
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Professor Laetitia Rispel
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The New Team New Secretary General and Vice Secretary General New Regional Representatives and Chair
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Bambanani Dancing Impressions
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Foreword Message from the Former Secretary-General
From Beirut, Paris, Bamako… to the Sustainable Development Goals November 2015 has been characterized by severe bomb attacks in Beirut, Paris, Bamako,… These events have led to important reflections: how can we deal with this kind of “unpredictable violence”? What are the causes behind these attacks? How will this affect the efforts for peaceful solutions in conflict areas? How will health professionals react and deal with anxiety, despair of the local populations, whilst thousands of migrants and refugees are on the move looking for secure places to live their lives. What kind of world we are preparing for our (grand)children? As institutions for Health Professional Education, as people with responsibility in development of health systems, as trainers of health workforce, as advocates for those most in need, we will have to establish a strategy uniting the forces that are able to shape solidarity, to overcome the differences, to live “connected” in a diverse world. In this context the reading of the “Sustainable Development Goals” may be an inspiring exercise. The 17 goals start with “end poverty in all its forms everywhere” (goal 1) over “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” (goal 3), towards “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (goal 4), “reduce inequality within and among countries” (goal 10), “take urgent action to combat climate changes and its impact (goal 13), “promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels” (goal 16), the goals show the way to go if we want to guarantee the next generations a life that is worth living in a sustainable and peaceful environment.
Jan De Maeseneer
The final declaration at the Gauteng-Conference of The Network: Towards Unity for Health formulated a clear message for the General Assembly of the United Nations’ 69th session. The concern that the Sustainable Development Goals lack an integrated and sustainable strategy on how to address health problems and underestimate the contribution health makes to the achievement of an equitable and sustainable inter-sectoral developmental approach, was mentioned very clearly by the participants. In a comment in The Lancet on “Primary Health Care and the Sustainable Development Goals” (Pettigrew LM, De Maeseneer J, Anderson MIP, Essuman A, Kidd MR, Haines A. Primary Health Care and the Sustainable Development Goals. The Lancet 2015;386:2119-2121), the authors share that concern but tried to make a step further. They argue that especially Primary Health Care can not only address Sustainable Development Goal 3 , but can also contribute to the achievement of many of the 16 other SDGs. There is evidence that primary health care may contribute to “addressing the Social Determinants of Health and can provide examples from daily practice that illustrate the contribution in helping to end poverty, improve nutrition, provide health education and promote lifelong learning, empower individuals and communities to reduce inequities and promote justice, enable access to save water and sanitation, encourage productive and sustainable employment, foster innovation, advocate for health in sustainable living environments and promote peaceful communities”. The authors warn that this requires an agenda that is explicit about how health systems with good quality comprehensive primary care can be achieved. The Comment states that “at the interface between the community, health system and other sectors, the primary care workforce is arguably the backbone of the entire health system”. Training this workforce in sufficient numbers, with a high quality educational approach, and integrating the perspective of “social accountability”, is exactly what our mission and vision as The Network: Towards Unity for Health stands for. I am very much convinced that the new leadership with Prof. Henry Campos as Secretary General, and dr. Elsie Kiguli, Vice-Secretary-General, will guide The Network to fulfill its role, bringing together likeminded people, that can make a difference where it really matters. By doing so, we will contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, in order to make sure that our grandchildren and all the children of the world may live in a peaceful world in the future. I was asked to write this last “Message” for the Newsletter, paving the way for the new leadership. Henry and Elsie, next time it’s your turn! Prof. Jan De Maeseneer, Former Secretary General, The Network: TUFH. Email: Jan.DeMaeseneer@UGent.be
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Conference Flashbacks Annual International Conference Looking Back to Gauteng; Looking Forward to China The 2015 conference in Gauteng, South Africa, appropriately themed “Working Together: Education for Change”, served as a wonderful opportunity for attendees to find solutions to changes in health and education systems. From the didactic plenary sessions to the collaborative workshops and stirring Conference on the Move visits, this annual meeting left us charged and ready to take back lessons learned to our communities. Old and new Ghent office But, our work is not done! Our next conference, set in beautiful Shenyang, China, will challenge us to think about the concept of trust in inter-professional medical education – how it is built and damaged, and the factors contributing to both. We will also be exploring methods to ensure quality education through accreditations of institutions and through the licensing of health professionals. We look forward to seeing you there! The transition of the Secretariat has also been progressing along very well. Together with the Secretary General and Vice Secretary General, the teams in Ghent and in Philadelphia have
been working hard to ensure critical matters are addressed, including the formation of an Ad Hoc Committee to review the bylaws of the organization. This is an important step towards ensuring the organization is properly structured and poised to progress into the future. If you would like to participate in the review of the Ad Hoc Committee’s suggestions, be on the lookout for communication from our office in early 2016. We are also working to revamp the website, as well as bringing changes to the Online Community, where members are able to interact with one another and engage in meaningful conversation! As always, please feel free to contact us for any requests, questions or concerns; we are here to serve you!
Marianne Van Lancker/Caroline Van Lancker/Angele Russell/Alberta Steans-Parsons, Office Email: secretariat@thenetworktufh.org
Bambani Poster Winners Also this year we had a great variety of high quality posters so selecting one winner was quite a challenge but finally our expert team decided on these three winners:
The best SAAHE poster went to Chivaugn Gordon: “PAPshop: A low fidelity pap smear workshop for use in resource constrained areas.”
In the category best student poster the winner is Thomas Jeo Joseph with: “Sleep behaviour and academic grade in School going adolescent children in a rural area.”
And finally the Best Overall poster was won by Anshu with “iPads at the point of care: transforming the way doctors work in a rural hospital.”
Congratulations to everyone!
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Conference Flashbacks Community Site Visits Chiawelo Community Health Centre and Soweto. Soweto, an urban area of the city of Johannesburg, is an abbreviation for South Western Townships. It came to the world’s attention in the late seventies when mass protests erupted and reverberated through the country and across the world over the government’s policy to enforce education in Afrikaans rather than English. We visited the Hector Pieterson Museum, two blocks away from where Hector Pieterson (16 years old student) was shot and killed during the Soweto uprising. Nelson Mandela spent many years living in Soweto. His Soweto home is currently a major tourist attraction. We had the opportunity to visit the Mandela House on 8115 Vilakazi Street, where he lived from 1946 to 1962, a short distance up the road from Tutu House, the home of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. Chiawelo was established as an ethnic extension to Soweto in 1956 for Tsonga and Vendaspeaking residents. This was part of the state’s strategy to shift black Africans into groupings that would later form the building blocks of the so-called “independent homelands”. Chiawelo Community Health Centre in Soweto provides primary, interdisciplinary care to a population of about 300,000. Its services include curative and minor surgical care, as well as mother and child care, and health promotion. By concentrating on four activities: deploying community health workers, reorienting services, engaging stakeholders and health promotion, the Health Centre team is moving towards integrated, community-oriented primary care. The community health workers reach out into the community, providing referrals and basic health care services, while gathering data which allows the professional team to tailor services for individuals while constructing a profile of the health of the community. An integrated team approach is then applied to common health problems. Meanwhile community leaders as well as other service sectors meet regularly with the health team to discuss health issues. The health centre also provides training places in medicine, occupational therapy, speech therapy and audiology, and sociology for students from Wits University. It is an active partner in an international research collaboration centred on human resources in primary care.
Garage health promotion group
After visiting the health centre, we continued to a private home to visit a programme aimed at improving mobility among elderly women. This community initiative responds to the needs of women in the area. The homeowner provides space in the garage of the home. Equipment is donated by the community. Participants meet for an hour every morning to follow exercise routines. The very dynamic group leader introduced the participants and spoke of some of the benefits of the programme. She mentioned that the participants have improved their mobility, reduced their pain and improved their health indices such as blood sugar levels and hypertension. Because of this, some have been able to reduce their use of medication. Furthermore, the regular meetings have fostered friendships and engagement which has improved participants’ well-being. This site visit helped the conference participants to embark on a journey of learning, discovery and experience in the context of Community Oriented Primary Care. Denise Donovan, MD, Université de Sherbrooke, Canada Email: Denise.Donovan@USherbrooke.ca Dr Khalifa Elmusharaf, Eastern Mediterranean Region Representative, The Network: TUFH Email: Khalifa_elmusharaf@yahoo.com
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Conference Flashbacks Community Site Visits Zama Zama Community and Daspoort Student Clinic Daspoort and Zama are found in West-Pretoria. The site visit started at the Zama Zama community at the clinic. Zama Zama is a zulu term that means “try your luck”. The community here has really tried its luck. At the community clinic they mostly see malnourished children and a few other communicable diseases. They closely monitor the child’s nutrition and growth. The community is composed of refugees from different countries and also a few natives. Zama Zama has a daycare and school that takes care of children from 4 months up to 12 years of age. These children are brought in by their parents who work in the city and most if not all are not able to take care of them. The mothers pay a much reduced fee, and those who cannot pay this contribution, are allowed to bring their children for free. The school is run with money from donations and fundraising mostly done by the students.
Visit to the Zama Zama Community
At the Zama Zama community, we were welcomed by smiling children who were hugging every member of our team. And at the school they sang and danced for us. A great entertainment it was! Later during our interaction, we were informed that before the students’ interventions, the community did not have infrastructure to house any development project. A container with the office and clinic, construction of latrines and the school/day care and later piped water were also provided through the students’ project. Students working under supervision now provide basic health care to the community. They have also trained the community health workers to do basic assessments and follow up. Also in this community students have developed and provided to the community members a stove that can use solar, paraffin and charcoal as a source of power. The Daspoort Student clinic, celebrated 50 years of existence last year. It is run by students from 9 disciplines; auditory, speech, ophthalmology, social workers, psychology, dentistry, medicine, physiotherapy and nursing. They work under supervision of their professors. Daspoort clinic has a group of community workers that mostly intervene at homestead level. They carry out home visits, they follow up the community members and they refer them to the clinic where need be. We were lucky to meet four community members who showed us the phone based system that is used to compile the information about the different families that is saved at the central server of the University. Najjuma Josephine, Intern Nurse Email: najjumjosephine@yahoo.co.uk
Big hug!
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Conference Flashbacks Community Site Visits Mamelodi
It was about a one hour drive to the former black township named Mamelodi. Mamelodi is situated northeast of Pretoria and has a population of about one million people. We first visited the Jafta Mahlangu health post, based in a school. We all sat down in a classroom on the student benches and were amazingly moved by 2 performances: two young girls singing Adele and two teenagers singing South-African music. A very warm welcome! Besides our group, a lot of the team leaders and Community Health workers were also present. We first watched a video about community oriented Community Health Workers explaining us their app primary care (COPC) and their project: Ward-based primary health care. The ward based outreach teams (WBOTs), each with a nurse and several community health workers (CHWs) are responsible for a designated area in the town. Each CHW servers about 200-25O families. CHWs perform house visits to map the community in case of household registration and health problems. A health plan is made and for urgent matters they refer to the clinic in their district. The project is financed by the University of Pretoria and the city of Tshwane. After this video we had time to discuss and listen to the CHWs and team leaders. They were all very mo- Jafta Mahlangu Health post tivated but were not afraid to point out some problems like security in some areas. Afterwards, we drove through the impressive Mamelodi, seeing a lot of smiling exciting children besides the roads and little shops, hairdressers, .. an active community! We visited in the east part, another clinic and finally a health post based in Lusaka. This is a health post embedded inside the community. We sat outside with the CHWs and they showed us the application they use to do the registration on their smart phones. We had a very nice day and a warm welcome. We were all impressed by their well working COPC project! Julie Vanden Bulcke, Editor Newsletter Email: julie1.vandenbulcke@ugent.be
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Conference Flashbacks Students Report
South African Student Involvement in the Bambanani Conference Our duties as student volunteers were simple: help wherever we could and participate in everything possible. We did exactly that! We helped at registration, setting up posters, pretended that we knew something about IT in the oral sessions and tried our hands at the dĂŠcor. In between those tasks we busied ourselves with anything else that was needed and even got time to take a coffee break and catch up with all the gossip for the day. While fulfilling our duties we got the opportunity to meet so many people, from foreign students and lecturers to some previously undiscovered locals. We were able to put our names out there and learn so much from attending the oral or poster sessions. Every day was different and more interesting than the previous one. We as students had the opportunity to participate in all the conference activities, but additionally, we also hosted a student. We also attended the welcoming cocktail and the cultural gala dinner, but our highlight was the student social.
Anleo Jansen (middle) and two fellow students
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I could write an entire article on just the student social on Sunday night. I have never seen so many young sober adults have that much fun before. The evening started off hesitantly, but then Nico Schuman and Alexa Buck decided to have a little icebreaker. Our peers started warming up and we got to know a few people better. Later that night all the tables were moved out of the way and everyone was dancing. The South African students showed everyone how to Sokkie (a local Afrikaaner dance) and soon everyone was at least attempting to imitate what was demonstrated. The social presented an opportunity for students to network among each other and forge new friendships – Facebook friend requests to everyone! At the end of it all we were more than just workers; we were a valved and an important part of the success of the conference. Anleo Jansen, Medical Student University of Pretoria, Pulse Chairperson 2015/2016,Health House Chairperson 2015/2016 Email: anleoj@gmail.com
Conference Flashbacks Students Report
Student Network Organisation (SNO) The Student Network Organization is back! During the last three conferences a team of motivated students have been working on reviving SNO and getting a structure in place. The Student Network Organization is an independent organizing body within The Network: TUFH aiming to increase student participation and career development opportunities through integrated participation in The Network: TUFH annual conferences.
SNO in action
To lead the Student Network Organization there is a strong team of five people: the president, vicepresident, office manager, public relations manager and manager of the local team.
Each year there will be an application and selection process to select next years’ president (from the old SNO leadership team) and 4 new SNO-members to fill the role of vice-president, office manager, manager of the local team and public relations manager. This way all students get an opportunity to be an SNO leadership member and get the experience of working in an interdisciplinary and international team. As The Network: Towards Unity For Health is a global organization, we highly value the representation of all regions in the world, on an equal basis. As the Student Network Organization, we wish to have regional representatives that can encourage student participation from their region. This way we can encourage global student interaction and participation. As this is a great responsibility and an amazing opportunity to work in an international team, each year a new student will be selected as the new regional representative. Their mission will be to engage students and help them to contribute to the conference. They will be the liaison between the students in their region and the Student Network Organization. The Student Network Organization is creating a new website where all the information will be available soon. Please go and explore! Our e-mail is sno.network@gmail.com. Please feel free to contact us, we are here for the students! I hope to see many old and new faces at The Network: TUFH conference in Shenyang China and that you apply for a position in the Student Network Organization for next year! Aricia De Kempeneer, President of the Student Network Organization Email: sno.network@gmail.com
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Conference Flashbacks Great Stories from Great People Professor Laetitia Rispel Laetitia Rispel is Professor and Head of Wits School of Public Health in Johannesburg and also scientific director of the Medical Research Council, Health Policy Research Group in the Centre for Health Policy. She is the first black South African women to achieve any of these honors. She gave an inspiring key note speech at our opening ceremony and afterwards we had the opportunity to talk with her!
We heard that you were inspired by Paulo Freire, what can we learn from him while preparing students to become more socially accountable in their daily practice?
see this as an opportunity that we need to use and advocate and lobby for instead of focusing on the lack of specific health SDG’s.
I think the important thing about Paulo Freire is the notion of critical thinking, reflection, it’s about taking into account the context. It’s about the students being aware of their own subjectivity through active reflection and recognizing that the learners or health science students come in with a whole lot of ideas. Paulo was very critical about what he called the banking approach to education where we assume that the students don’t know anything and so I think the whole notion of social pedagogy resonates very strongly with what is in essence his philosophy of critical pedagogy and recognizing the value and the context that students bring to the table.
It is an opportunity to make a transformation of process towards health care providers to let them think more globally, to look at environmental, social and other determinants of health.
You referred to the sustainable development goals (SDG), where only one out of 17 is referring to health. Goal number 3 has nine targets and one of those is universal health coverage and another speaks to human resources. They state that people have the right to essential health care and you corrected that it should be primary health care. Don’t you think the SDG could be difficult for health care workers to understand, will they not be upset that only one out of 17 speaks to them?
I would say on the more optimistic side, that if you look at many of the other goals, for example the reduction of poverty and really dealing with inequalities that also really speaks to the social determinants of health. So I would say to people who are upset that perhaps we should reflect on our own understanding of health and that it’s a broader definition of health which includes the social determinants of health instead of just health care then many of the SDGs are actually in support of health. If we take the goal about the planet and the environment and sustainability around that, the reality is that climate change will affect the health of poor people disproportionately. We can already see that with for example floods in Mozambique. I would like us to
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In order to do that we will have to change our programs of training undergraduates. How can we train them to learn social determinants of health? What would be your advice to a school in order to teach their students about the difference in health if you are born in a wealthy or a poor family?
We’ve just put together a report on Primary Health Care (PHC) to revolutionize primary health care in the faculty of health sciences in my university and we’ve limited the recommendations to 3 aspects: In the first instance we need to transform the curriculum of all health science students, not just medical, towards PHC so students become change advocates for PHC, and that others understand and support PHC. The second aspect of the change is that we must reorient faculty or educators to that change process. The third aspect is that you create an enabling environment for that change to happen: you need to invest resources, finances, and infrastructure. There needs to be new relationships with communities, seeing them as equal partners, and governments who provide services. It also means that our research must be orientated to a new way of thinking and so it becomes a set of activities that are then supported by a broader faculty or university vision. This should be applicable to health science faculties all over the world!
The New Team New Secretary General and Vice Secretary General Henry Campos and Elsie Kiguli are our new leading team. This dynamic duo of secretary general and vice SG will lead our organization for the next 4 years! We are very excited about our new leaders so what else could we do other than interview them?
Can you describe your current job position? What do you do?
interested in Health Professions Education. My first time attending The Network: TUFH conferences was when it was held in Newcastle, Australia 11-16 September 2003. I enjoyed it very much. Since then I have only missed one which was in Atlanta, USA .”
Elsie Kiguli: “I am the Director for African Coordinating Center, Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) at the African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation (ACHEST), Why do you think The Network: TUFH is important and how can they make a difference? Kampala Uganda. MEPI is a US government funded project to 13 medical Elsie Kiguli: “The Network: TUFH as the name schools in Africa aimed at improving suggests is a network of many health professimedical education in the region. I am ons schools, organizations that work in health responsible for the day to day runand also individuals interested in promoting Henry Campos, SG; Elsie Kiguli, Vice-SG ning of the MEPI African Centre office health. It is important because it is multidiscipliat ACHEST, participating in site visits nary and aims at making sure that health professions education and writing reports for the site visits, communication between the is relevant and meets the needs of the communities. There is no Coordinating center (there are two, one in the US and another in way that health promotion can happen if individual professions Uganda) and the MEPI schools as well as compiling information on work in silos, health educators and health system managers don’t evaluation and review of progress of the projects. I produce the interact etc. At the Network all these people meet and share ideas MEPI monthly newsletters, coordinate and work on publications and work together to ensure that they meet the needs of the comand conduct research in Medical Research. I also work with the munities. The Network conferences are unique because everybody schools and other members of the coordinating center to disseis given an opportunity to participate as there very many methods minate the successes, innovations, challenges, and lessons learnt used like workshops, posters, small group discussions, and panels. from MEPI.” So one cannot fail to find somewhere to fit. Henry Campos: “My initial medical background was in Internal MeThe Network can make a difference by working with the internatiodicine and Nephrology. Over the years it evolved to kidney transnal organizations like WHO to ensure that their vision is met. Taking plantation, transplant immunology and immunosuppression. In the into consideration the Sustainable Development Goals, Universal last twelve years education in the health professions, leadership, Health Coverage etc. The Network has the expertise and the peoand development of policies to strengthen the heath workforce ple with their hearts set at achieving health for all. “ have become the center of my interest. At present, I am full professor of Internal Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the Federal Henry Campos: “Because it gathers educators and scientists that University of Ceará, Brazil, and Rector of this University for a fourshare knowledge and commitment to community based education year term (2015-2018). I also serve as a special advisor to the Braand with their skills they constitute the most valuable resource in zilian Minister of Education for education of the health professions the response to the challenges faced by health systems to overand coordinate the plan of expansion of medical schools in Brazil.” come inequality, to improve the quality of education in the health professions, and to leverage social accountability of educational How and when did you come in contact with The Network: TUFH? institutions.” Henry Campos: “I got to know the organization many years ago, Why did you become (vice) secretary general? when its’ annual meeting was held in Londrina, Brazil. Even though I was not able to attend the meeting I became aware of the orgaHenry Campos: “After having organized the 2014 educational meenization’s agenda. Its importance became clear to me as an instruting of the Network: TUFH in Fortaleza, in 2014, I was urged by ment that could help respond to many of the challenges faced by several friends to get more involved with the organization. I think it the global health agenda around the world.” became a natural consequence of the work that I have been doing over the last 12-13 years in education and in initiatives aiming to Elsie Kiguli: “I first got to know about the Network TUFH through strengthen universal access to health care. The fact of sharing this the Maastricht University in 2003. This was when I started getting task with Elsie Kiguli-Malwadde, who also comes from a developing
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The New Team New Secretary General and Vice Secretary General country and has been very active in the field, was an additional motivation. I think the two of us together can reinforce the need for The Network: TUFH to go far beyond its annual meetings and reach a leading position in reducing the gap in health care around the world.” Elsie Kiguli: “I decided to have a go at being part of the leadership of this important organization because I see that it is making a difference. I have been there long enough to understand how it works. Jan De Maeseneer, the former SG has been my mentor and he contributed to building my confidence and increasing my awareness of the importance of the work that the Network is doing. I have been working with a large multidisciplinary group in MEPI across continents and cultures and so I could contribute by serving in this position of Vice SG using my experiences there. Having worked with a large group of people across cultures, and disciplines, I will be able to contribute to the work in the organization. Also the fact that I am a FAIMER fellow and as the secretariat moves to FAIMER, I feel confident that my experience with FAIMER as a FAIMER fellow would also add value. I also Know Henry Campos well and I think together we have a lot in common; we are committed to serving the network and that is important. I also feel that as a lady, I represent quite a large number of people and I hope that the skills that I have can help enhance gender equity not only at the Network but also in health in general.” What will be your focus in you new position? Henry Campos: “One of the main focuses is to give the organization a clear sense of a broader meaning, to increase the scope and outreach of its actions, to design specific actions in each continent and to build or increase partnerships to meet these goals. The Network: TUFH can also benefit by more participation of its members and there is a need for it, which will also bring more transparency and sense of a community of practices. The increase of membership is a must, as well as a plan for financial sustainability. There is also opportunity to empower regional representatives and task force groups. There is also a clear need to improve communication within the organization and we will do our best to keep the membership informed and motivated.” Elsie Kiguli: “ I would like to make sure that the partnerships and collaborations in the Network TUFH go beyond the conferences and that people work together to make health professional education better. I would like to see the schools and different communities work together on projects so that those who have more experience share with others and that collaborative learning between the organizations is enhanced. I would also like to see that there is more participation from the low resource countries.” For the first time there is a close collaboration between a SG and a vice SG. How will this work? Do you think it’s an asset and why? Elsie Kiguli: “I think it is an asset to have two people at this position so that they can share the work. There is a lot of work
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and also it is always good to have someone to share ideas with. We agreed with Henry right from the start that we would work together to ensure that The Network: TUFH moves forward.” Henry Campos: “Besides the fact that we both come from two developing areas, Africa and South America, who face huge challenges to improve access and quality of health care, Elsie and I have a very similar educational background. Both of us have also been acting on the front lines of very complex challenges in our countries, in health system related issues and also struggles to improve the quality, commitment and social accountability of schools of the health professions. I have no doubt that our work will be very complimentary and that the presence of The Network: TUFH in all forums will increase.” Also this year there is the transition of the secretariat from Ghent to Philadelphia. What are according to you the main challenges and how should they be handled? Henry Campos: “It is mandatory to have clarity on the role of these structures in order to have focused, structured actions and to start to pave the road for a stronger and sustainable organization.” Elsie Kiguli: “The transition from Ghent to Philadelphia, I believe should be smooth because we have very experienced teams at both places that are willing to work together. So I don’t think there will be a problem. We just have to make sure that the communication lines are clear and that the work is well distributed. They have already started working together very well so things are moving smoothly.” What future do you see for The Network:TUFH? Elsie Kiguli: “I see that the Network TUFH has the ability to influence what happens in Global Health. It has a lot of potential because there are many experts from all over the world within the Network who are committed to making the world a better place. There is a need to increase the membership to be able to achieve more.” Henry Campos: “I think The Network: TUFH will be more and more the locus that will guide excellence for community-based education, an organization that stimulates and welcomes partnership, that is highly motivated to reduce disparities, to build health systems with universal access to care, to help to form more solid health professionals and more socially accountable schools of the health professions. And, as I mentioned before, a true community of practice of health educators.” Any other message for our readers? Henry Campos: “Please send us your suggestions, express your expectations and, with your voices, help us to build this pathway to sustainability, participation and transparency of The Network: TUFH.” Elsie Kiguli: “Specifically to appeal to all members to cooperate with us, communicate and give us ideas. If there is anything they would like to be done better, they should not hesitate to inform us. We intend to be open minded and also to try to listen to others and be all inclusive.”
The New Team New Regional Representatives and Chair At our last conference, Bambanani, in South-Africa, a lot of organizational changes were made. Five new regional representatives were chosen at our general meeting as well as a new Chair. Obviously we want you to know a bit more about your regional representative, so we interviewed them about what they do and what drives them. Each and every one of them is exceptional for the effort they want to make! Can you describe your current job, what are your titles, what do you do? David Marsh (North America): ”I am the Associate Dean, Community Engagement and Deputy Dean at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM), Canada. These positions lead several specific functions which all relate to the relationships between different portfolios at the school and between the school and our community partners. In particular we have mechanisms to facilitate us meeting our Social Accountability mandate by ensuring we work in partnership with the people of Northern Ontario to match our educational, research and service activities to the needs of the people we serve. We have a specific emphasis on meeting the needs of the Aboriginal, Francophone and Rural/Remote populations of our geographic catchment area.” Francisco Lamus (EC Chair): “Currently I am Associate Professor and Director of the Research Group in Family and Community Medicine at the Center for Community Health (CESCUS) in the Faculty of Medicine at Universidad de La Sabana. I am also a pediatrician with a Master’s in Public Health who over the years has been involved in delivering a “social pediatrics” practice to children and families of underserved communities in the highlands of the center part of Colombia. In this process I´ve been also a leader and collaborator on several projects and initiatives related to maternal and child health, primary health and medical education. In the process I have been an activist and promoter of different community health development projects with civil society organizations and public sector institutions in Colombia and internationally. Together with my team we have worked on a community-based approach to health research where community members and health professions students participate in finding ways to improve the health of communities.” Kamayani Mahabal (South East Asia): “I am a trainer in gender, health and human rights. I am a Human Rights lawyer, clinical psychologist, journalist, women’s rights activist, and Social Media Expert (http://www.kractivist. org/). I am associated with various movements and networks like Peoples Health Movement, Protesting Violence Against Women Campaign, Medico Friends Circle and International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organisations (IFHHRO). I am also writing for women feature service and involved in various human rights campaigns. I conduct various trainings on gender with police, judges, students and civil society activists. I am Vice-Chair of The International Network: TUFH Taskforce on Women and Health. (WHTF)”
Godwin Aja (Africa): “I am a Professor of Public Health at Babcock University, Nigeria. I teach Health Promotion and Health Education classes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I am a visiting professor to many Schools of Public Health in Nigeria and abroad. I am currently on a one year sabbatical leave at the School of Health Sciences, National Open University of Nigeria, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria.” Khalifa Elmusharaf (Eastern Mediterrenean): “I work with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland - RCSI Bahrain as a lecturer in Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine. I am also the Director of Reproductive & Child Health Research Unit ‘RCRU’ at the University of Medical Sciences & Technology ‘UMST’ in Sudan.” Paulo Marcondes (Latin America): “I am a faculty member at Marilia Medical School. There I facilitate problem based learning tutorial sessions on a competency-based curriculum. I’m part of a Master’s Program on Health and Elderly, were I have classes and advise student’s projects. I am a graduate of Medicine, have two Masters on Health Professions Education at UIC/USA and Biomedical Engineering at UNICAMP/Brazil. I have a PhD on Biomedical Engineering UNICAMP/Brazil, and I did a fellow at Faimer Philadelphia.” How and when did you came in contact with the Network:TUFH? David Marsh: ”I have been attending the Network:TUFH meetings since I joined NOSM in 2010 and helped arrange for NOSM to host the Network meeting as part of Rendez-Vous 2012 (five international conferences in one held in Thunder Bay, Ontario).” Francisco Lamus: “I came in contact with The Network-TUFH in 2003 through the International Center for Health Leadership Development, a program related to the School of Medicine at University of Illinois - Chicago, where I participated as a fellow, and a colleague in that program invited me to the 2003 Newcastle (Australia) conference. Since then I found that The Network TUFH brought together like-minded people and organizations worldwide, within a safe and friendly environment, willing to share experiences that worked in constructing health enabling communities. In 2007 I became Latin American representative to the EC, and in 2008 had the privilege to lead the team that hosted the conference at Universidad de La Sabana in Chía and Bogotá.”
Paulo Marcondes,
Latin America
Kamayani Mahabal: “I met the Women and Health Taskforce (WHTF) members in Bangladesh in 2006 at an international conference now women’s health and joined as women’s health task force member, and atten-
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The New Team New Regional Representatives and Chair ded my first conference in 2006 in Ghent.” Godwin Aja: “I came in contact with The Network: TUFH in 2003 and participated in The Network Conference held in Atlanta, USA in 2004. Ever since, I have been actively involved with the Women and Health Task Force and Elderly Care Task Force.” Khalifa Elmusharaf: “I have been a member of The Network for more than 15 years. I was honored to receive the prestigious Tamas Fülöp David Marsch, Award by The Network: TUFH North America during the 2007 conference in Kampala. I have actively participated in more than 10 annual conferences. I have been elected as a member of the managing committee of the Women Health Taskforce WHTF.” Paulo Marcondes: “When I start my job at Marilia Medical School, they were part of a Kellogg Foundation program, who invited members to attend The Network: TUFH meetings. My first one was at New Mexico, a long time ago.” Why did you become a Regional Representative or Chair? David Marsh: ”I had discussions with the previous North American representative over the past few years about the role and realized the opportunity to contribute as her term was ending.” Kamayani Mahabal: “ I joined as a regional representative, to further support the vision and mission of TUFH to forge strong partnerships within the region and help and foster unity of action between community stakeholders including community representatives, health professions institutions, health services, and health policy makers, with the help of the members of the Region.” Francisco Lamus: “I decided to run for the position encouraged by the support of long lasting leaders of the organization, from whom I´ve learned the meaning and value of “servant leadership”, as well as the importance of keeping a track within the organization to walk towards promoting and expanding communities of practice, where health is both an asset and an achievement build collaboratively among diverse social actors.” Godwin Aja: “I vied for the position of regional representative for Africa to enhance collaboration among African member institutions and individuals in the pursuit of the mission and vision of The Network: TUFH. I would like to see all African institutions connect (very strongly) health professions training to community needs and priorities; a strategy I consider critical to achieving the global sustainable health development agenda.” Khalifa Elmusharaf: “Although I am very pleased with what Dr. Mohamed Moukhyer has offered to the region, I believe that there is always room for improvement. I believe that my solid links with The Network and my strong connections within the Eastern Mediterranean Region will put me in a great position to work with the members of the region to voice our thoughts and opinions to The
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Network: TUFH.” Paulo Marcondes: “For me The Network: TUFH is very important, like a Youth Fountain, where I come to refurbish my understanding on the health sciences education field. I follow Francisco Lamus’ work since Lima’s meeting and it’s a way to keep his work on The Network: TUFH, too.” What do you want to realize for the Network:TUFH as a Regional Representative or Chair? David Marsh: ”I am very interested in facilitating the continued growth of The Network:TUFH as a “network of networks”, an idea born during the meeting we hosted at NOSM. I hope to assist in building strong relationships between the Network and its’ individual and institutional members, other organizations with similar or related mandates (such as the Training for Health Equity Network, the Beyond Flexner initiative, the Global Consensus on Social Accountability, global health organizations and others). I also hope to help increase the visibility and membership in the Network across North America.” Francisco Lamus: “As chair of the EC I want to contribute to build bridges among existing organizational structures, members, and institutions, facilitating communication and the connection of assets that may facilitate opportunities for action for members and collaborations among them.” Kamayani Mahabal: “The Network has provided an international “platform” for those engaged in this important struggle, where needed information, consultation and support can be found in the most unlikely places. I would seek to bridge the gap between academic institution and community and grass root organizations within the region. To work on the possibilities of exchanging and sharing the work within the region, and also to make TUFH more visible within the region and to get new members. Also I would like to make TUFH more visible in various academic institutions and health organization, with help and support of the members in my region. As a Regional Rep I would also like to strengthen the coordination and communication within various taskforces, as Kamayani Mahabal, during the last regional meeting in PreSouth East Asia toria conference, the members showed keen interest in participating in various tasks force activities The Network is a “learning organization.” What excites me are the people I meet through the network, the fresh ideas that emerge, that are shared, and that allow us to transform institutions and programs, in our respective countries. I would make an extra effort to get medical students within the region active in TUFH activities and also work closely with the Student’s union for active collaboration with students in the region.” Godwin Aja: “I would like to promote effective collaboration among African member institutions and individuals of The Network: TUFH through improved communication, shared opportunities, advocacy
The New Team New Regional Representatives and Chair and networking. Efforts will be intensified to sustain existing membership of African health institutions and individuals in The Network: TUFH. An aggressive recruitment drive will be initiated to admit new institutions and individual members to The Network: TUFH.”
Khalifa Elmusharaf, Eastern Mediterranean
Khalifa Elmusharaf: “I would like to increase the membership from the Eastern Mediterranean Region from different health and community stakeholders, and to promote regional collaboration between members for education, health services and research.”
Paulo Marcondes: “Of course, increasing Latin America participation into all The Network: TUFH activities, working groups and meetings.” How do you see the future of the Network: TUFH? David Marsh: ”I think the Network:TUFH has a very bright future. Several trends in health professional education are perfectly aligned with the organizational mandate and mission of the Network. In response to the 2010 Lancet Commission report on the future of health professional education, there is a rising interest in social accountability, distributed education, community-engaged education, service learning, public health and preparing a health professional workforce that matches the needs of all people in the world. I believe there is an opportunity for The Network to continue to lead these developments globally.” Francisco Lamus: “I consider that an important part of the agenda that The Network – TUFH has ahead is to build a sustainable structure that reflects the organizational achievements of a broad base of constituents contributing to meet the health needs of communities worldwide by exploring, reporting and disseminating experience and cases at different levels of collaboration in the different axis of the “TUFH pentagram”: in policy making, health professions practice, academic institutions actions, civil society collaborations and health management. If the Network-TUFH advances in finding ways that meet the challenges of organizations that require from it to be flexible, expand and at the same time maintain cohesion in its endeavor to find and provide innovative opportunities for communities to achieve better health; the opportunities to have a major role as a “matrix of health enabling alternatives” are enormous from the local to the global level. If not, responses to the growing gaps in health disparities, health systems inequities and fragmentation will come from other emerging organizations or
they must just continue to be absent.” Kamayani Mahabal: “TUFH should encourage productive and sustainable partnerships among key stakeholders working at that level: policy-makers, health activists, health professionals, academic institutions and communities. TUFH should facilitate the creation of productive and sustainable partnerships in the interest of people’s health. Our goal is to reduce fragmentation in health service delivery caused by divisions such as those between individual Godwin Aja, Africa health and community health, preventive and curative services, generalists and specialists, providers and users, the private and public sectors, and social and economic aspects of health. We need to further strengthen the alliances and synergies we have developed at the operational level as well as policy level among key interest groups with specific strengths and expectations. We also need to especially make an impact in area of medical ethics and social accountability of health professionals and promote continuous learning from practical endeavors in order to make steady progress in coordinating changes in health services and health professions practice and education. Health is not just a medical, social and economic issue it is a political issue and right to health care a fundamental right, which is still denied in many countries. TUFH needs to strengthen its voice in global, political and international human rights platforms as well for becoming a crucial international voice, demanding affordable, available, accessible and quality health care for all.” Godwin Aja: “The future of The Network: TUFH is bright. In an era of emerging health challenges, health professionals working together with students and communities can contribute immensely to addressing health disparities in both rich and poor countries.” Khalifa Elmusharaf: “I see us in the next 10 years as a think tank of globally connected students, academic health professions, researchers, policy-makers, institutions and organizations from around the world working together to improve community health and health professions education. Regionally, in the Eastern Mediterranean Region of The Network TUFH, we will create partnerships between academic health professions institutions and other stakeholders to focus on research in health professional education, identification and alleviation of priority health problems of the community and on innovative health services and to apply the generated knowledge to strengthen health systems.” Paulo Marcondes: “I strongly believe in networking, team group work and connecting people. This is The Network: TUFH. The future is open for us to build on.”
Francisco Lamus, EC Chair
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Bambanani Dancing Impressions
Newsletter Volume 33/no. 2/december 2015 ISSN 1571-9308 Editor: Julie Vanden Bulcke Language editor: Amy Clithero
The Network: Towards Unity for Health Publications UGent University Hospital, 6K3 De Pintelaan 185 B-9000 Ghent, Belgium Tel: (32) (0)9 332 1234 Fax: (32) (0)9 332 49 67 Email: secretariat-network@ugent.be Internet: www.the-networktufh.org
Lay Out: Marijke Deweerdt, Anja Peleman Print: Drukkerij Focusprint