eosvisions

Overview

Professional exchanges, knowledge sharing and the contribution of expertise in the form of capacity building and master trainer courses are important factors in personal and professional advancement. In many African countries, in particular, healthcare and social service sectors are frequently less developed and face rather unique challenges. As a result, visiting professionals and students encounter very rewarding opportunities of meaningful engagement for themselves and their institutions.

We develop and facilitate such international educational and professional exchanges in East Africa, among others, for professionals and students in specialized areas in medicine, nursing, midwifery, public health, psychology, counseling or social work. Exchanges can range from hands-off study visits and friendship tours that incorporate professional counterpart meetings and site visits, to fully hands-on service-learning or capacity building engagements.

We are particularly proud of our signature capacity building programs in mental health, neonatal health and oral health where we and our partners are making significant contributions to local efforts to improve these sectors. Read more by clicking on the next pages.

Study trips

Recent years have seen an ever increasing internationalization of personal and professional environments. Professional focus study trips respond to the growing need for international experiences and offer professionals and students the opportunity to visit another country, and to meet with local and expatriate counterparts who work in the same or a related field. This allows the visitors to gain valuable new perspective on their profession, to share common challenges and to generally connect on a one-to-one level. Itineraries regularly involvegovernment authorities, academic leaders, embassies, development agencies, non-profit organizations and local businesses – willing to interact with the visitors through guest presentations, meetings, lectures and site visits. This is embedded in educational, cultural and historical introductions as well as nature, leisure and fun activities.

In the past, we have hosted delegations with the following professional interests: community & family health nursing, counseling, emergency medicine, family medicine, healthcare & medical education, HIV/AIDS, internal medicine, mental health & social services, nursing, obstetrics & gynecology, oral health, physiotherapy, psychiatry, psychology, public health, reconstructive plastic surgery, rural physiology, social work, and tuberculosis. Among others, we are the official East Africa partner of the People to People Ambassador Programs.

Case studies:

• Rural physiology: We hosted a delegation of rural physicians in Rwanda under the leadership of Dr. Karl Stobbe, President of the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada. The primary professional objective was to seek better understanding of healthcare in rural Rwanda. Delegates learned about priority health needs of the people, how the current healthcare system addresses those needs, and what the working conditions of doctors and other healthcare professionals look like.
• Public health: Cornell University’s international health club undertook a public health study visit to Rwanda in order to experience and understand the public healthcare system of an exemplary developing country. Seen by many as an African success story, Rwanda now has over 92% of the population covered under a basic healthcare plan. Participating students learned about the work of district health advisors, physicians and nurses, visited local government offices and public health centers, and met with representatives of the Access Project, Rwanda Works, the Millennium Villages Project and the National University of Rwanda’s teaching hospital.

Service-learning

We are strongly committed to developing and facilitating professional capacity building and other service-learning programs. Three example areas are our signature partnerships in mental health, neonatal health, and oral health. These programs apply to experienced professionals as well as advanced students.

Mental health

Mental health is typically very low on the list of healthcare priorities in developing countries. In collaboration with the National Board for Certified Counselors in the US and the Rwandan Ministry of Health, we offer regular Mental Health Facilitator trainer courses to visiting delegations of mental health professionals and students who then apply their new skills by helping to train Rwandan community health workers to achieve significant scale-up.

Neonatal health

Upon invitation of the Rwandan Minister of Health and in collaboration with the Council of International Neonatal Nurses, we regularly host master trainer courses to help build capacity in maternal, infant & child health. Visiting medical, nursing and midwifery professionals and students can participate in certificate programs like Helping Babies Breathe or STABLE, and apply their new skills by training Rwandan caregivers.

Oral health

In order to address the severe lack of oral healthcare in Rwanda (1 dentist per 1 million people), we regularly host delegations of visiting dental professionals and students to provide the Rural Rwanda Dental basic oral health training curriculum to Rwandan nurses and community health workers. Additionally, our delegations work with primary schools to teach appropriate methods of prevention to the children.