Southern Ethiopia - Gwent Health Link

The 9th year of the Southern Ethiopia Gwent health link has been another busy year, both in Gwent as well as in Ethiopia. Number of people participating in the link activities on both sides has also grown steadily.

Training programmes

Midwifery Skills workshop for the midwives / nurses involved in the care of the pregnant mothers in rural health facilities- November 2008

22 midwives /nurses attended this four day skills course, all for the very first time in such a workshop. Many travelled long distances, some for nearly 1000 km to attend the course. Five members from Gwent were joined by four members from the Hawassa Hospital. The aims of this midwifery workshop were to update nurse/midwives in emergency obstetric drills, in common obstetric problems, to provide course participants with the knowledge and skills to teach others, to provide a support mechanism for nurse/midwives working alone in isolated areas of southern Ethiopia. All participants also received training in teaching methods so that the skills learned by them could be cascaded to many more.

Laboratory Professional development skills workshop for the medical laboratory technicians – March 2008

This five day CPD skills workshop was for the laboratory technicians working in remote health centres and hospitals in SNNPR. This was the third workshop organized by the link since 2002 and still remains the only such CPD programme for the medical laboratory technicians in Ethiopia. 29 attended, some traveling over 800km (for 3-4 days) to attend the workshop. Four faculty members from Wales were Save joined by five members from the Hawassa College Laboratory science teaching team. The link donated all the participants with text books on practical laboratory science (Monica Cheeseborough volume 1 &2) and glucometers and strips for their health centres.

Nurse anaesthetists’ skills workshop-November 2008

In most hospitals in Ethiopia there are no doctor anaesthetists and the anaesthetic service is provided by the trained nurse anaesthetists. The link facilitated ‘Mother of Africa’ charity to run a skills update workshop for the nurse anaesthetists working in SNNPR hospitals. This course, first ever in Ethiopia was attended by 18 nurse anaesthetists. 3 faculty members from Wales travelled and were supported by local knowledge provided by the surgeons joining as faculty from the Hawassa hospital. All the participants were also given useful anaesthetic items including pulse oxymeters.

Training of Health Centre staff in Alaba, Yirgacheffe and Wondogenet:

During the visits in March and November 2008 the link provided on site on the job skills training for the health centre staff and attending students in the these health centres. A total of 62 received training in emergency obstetrics, trauma and surgical care, paediatrics and computer skills

Community Health extension workers: November 2008

Ethiopian Government has started training of women from the community in basic health promotion and hygiene. Role of these groups of health workers in reducing maternal mortality is going to be significant in future. Practical training of the health extension workers is now responsibility of the health centre staff. The link provided training for 84 health extension workers in the three health centre as well as training of the trainers

Training of the trainers

In all the training workshops the link adopted the policy of including teaching techniques as part of the programme for the participants to cascade skills learned to many more.

In 2008 Hawassa Hospital welcomed back the return of Dr Aberra, Link coordinator, from India after one year specialist training in Urology sponsored by our link. SNNPR now has at least one trained Urologist in Dr. Aberra.