Southern Ethiopia - Gwent Health Link

Present

Dave Williams, Dave Sanders, Peter Smith, Biku Ghosh, Lynn McDonnell, Alan Terry, Kyle Jaques, Michelle Hall, Melrose East, Pamela Powell, Peter Sampson (Chair), Brydon Williams, Sally Venn

Apologies

Helen Houston, Stephanie Petrie, Denise Lewis, Carole Garrick, Jo Weiner, Jo Keen, Catherine Novi, Paul Clyburn, Wendy Warren, Grace Thomas

Reports

Biku outlined his annual report which had previously been distributed to the group via email. Biku felt that 2007 had been the most successful to date. Skills workshop, CME workshops for Health Officers and laboratory skills training had all been particularly successful.

Work with the exemplar health centres had commenced and had been well received. Plans are well under way to expand on this work both within the health centres and with the local communities.

The Bryn y Cwm community link has been established and members of the group had visited Yirgacheffe. They were successful in their application for a UN pilot gold star community project. Several partnerships have been established.

The link has also facilitated the establishment of an institutional link between Cardiff University and Hwassa University. There have been several successful exchange visits in both directions.

The link has supported Hwassa hospital with training, equipment and instruments as well as providing funding for Dr Aberra to undertake specialist training in urology in India for one year. The Gwent link has increased its collaboration with other links in Wales via the Wales for Africa Health Links Group and the Wales for Africa Conference.

The link has also extended its work with other international charities namely, Safe Hands for Mothers and Mothers for Africa. During the last visit to Ethiopia, the group were accompanied by a BBC journalist who made a documentary highlighting the links work in Ethiopia. Several members of the group were personally thanked for their hard work during the past year.

Peter Sampson responded by thanking Biku for his tireless efforts as the link coordinator, organising visits, acquiring equipment, communicating with the coordinators in Ethiopia and supporting the group during visits to Ethiopia.

He reiterated the view that 2007 had been an extremely successful year for the link.

Financial Report

Alison was not available to provide a financial report. Biku stated that the link had enough funds for the time being. WAG funding for next year is awaited. However, the group also needs to raise funds locally. Several examples were explored.

Election of Officers

• Chairman – Peter Sampson
• Vice Chair – Wendy warren
• Coordinator – Biku Ghosh
• Finance Officer – Alison Griffiths
• Nurse/Midwife Lead – Melrose East
• Laboratory Lead – Dave Williams
• Community GP Link – Sally Venn

AOB

February 26th two UN visitors, one from China and one from Ethiopia, will be visiting the link at Nevill Hall. They will be shown around various departments of the hospital.

Lynn had discussed with her team how they could support the link in the future.

THET conference, June 6th

Wales for Africa Conference, Swansea, June 27th

Next Meeting

Tuesday, April 1st 2008, Education Centre, Nevill Hall Hospital