3rd Quarter 2010 News
First "Leaders in Health–Namibia" Educational Series Concludes
In late June, I-TECH instructors and 13 leaders from across the Namibian health sector, including the Ministry of Health and Social Services, the Ministry of Defense, and the University of Namibia, gathered on the beautiful Midgard Estate near Okahandja, Namibia. The group was there to complete the final phase of the Leaders in Health–Namibia workshop series.
New Guide Helps Haitian Clinicians Provide Psychosocial Care
A new I-TECH-developed French-language pocket guide, Guide Rapid d’Evaluation et De Soins aux Surviviants du Seisme, helps Haitian clinicians provide psychosocial care in an emergency context.
On the Front Lines of HIV Care, Six Months After Haiti Quakes
July marks six months since the devastating earthquakes in Haiti. In those six months I-TECH Haiti staff have surmounted personal, professional, and clinical challenges, and continue to provide essential support to the public sector health care system as the nation rebuilds.
Five Year Caribbean Project Strengthens HIV Training Network
I-TECH has recently completed a five-and-a-half year project, funded by the US Agency for International Development, to strengthen the Caribbean Regional HIV/AIDS Training Network (CHART); a cornerstone of the region's efforts to bolster HIV health care service delivery. CHART is a unique multi-country network of training centers in Jamaica, Haiti, the Bahamas, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago, and includes a Regional Coordinating Unit based at the University of the West Indies, in Jamaica. The centers offer curriculum development and training on HIV care, and provide technical resources to support each country to design and manage its HIV care program.
I-TECH Workshop Supports Laboratory Leaders
In many resource-limited settings, laboratory leaders are working to improve systems despite significant gaps in relationships, management structure, and laboratory capacity. To support these leaders, I-TECH, together with the University of Washington Department of Laboratory Medicine, recently hosted a pilot of the International Laboratory Leadership and Management Workshop for Systems Development.
New mission statement reflects I-TECH's focus on sustainable local programs
Since its founding in 2002, I-TECH has grown rapidly, and now manages a diverse portfolio of projects in more than twenty countries, drawing on technical skills from staff in a network of eleven country offices, as well as the resources of two leading US research universities. Responding to the broadening of its technical capacity, and of its project portfolio, I-TECH changed the "H" in its name from "HIV" to "Health" in November 2009, and has recently revised its mission as well.
Third "Remember Eliphas" Film Launched in Namibia
Sounds of collective gasping, laughing and cheering echoed from the mouths of soldiers, senior Namibian Cabinet Ministers and top brass from Namibia’s Ministry of Defence/Namibian Defence Force (MOD/NDF) in attendance during the official movie premiere for Remember Eliphas III, Marching Forward. "The Remember Eliphas films really are the best thing to happen for our military personnel,” said Major Abraham Ngondhela, about Namibia’s award-winning Eliphas Series. The series follows the life of fictional soldier Eliphas Elago who tested positive and disclosed his HIV status in Remember Eliphas parts I and II. Marching Forward follows Eliphas as he faces a serious family problem and introduces a new military character who is in need of Eliphas’ well-honed peer education skills as he grapples with his own HIV status.
