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dec 05 2017

#SupportAIGT #5 – Johan von Schreeb

Johan von Schreeb , MD,PhD is an associate professor specialised in general surgery and disaster medicine. In 1989 he went on his first mission with Médecins Sans Frontières. In 1993 he co-founded MSF in Sweden and served as its president for seven years. He also regularly works with the World Health Organisation and was co-author of their publication ‘Classification and standards for Foreign Medical Teams (FMT)’ in sudden onset disasters. In his most recent task for the WHO he was the coordinator of the FMT during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. Johan was awarded ‘Swede of the Year’ in 2014 by Swedish news magazine FOKUS and was honoured with the Prins Carl medal by the Swedish King in 2014 for his outstanding humanitarian work during the ebola crisis. We asked him about his opinion on the postgraduate Global Health and Tropical Medicine programme.

‘’I am a general surgeon who decided to widen my professional skills and also work globally. I have, through my work in several low- and middle-income countries, significantly improved my surgical capacities to manage a wide range of surgical as well as medical challenges. I can work and take decisions with limited resources and have improved my clinical skills significantly thanks to my global work. In Sweden we have few number of trauma patients and thus our experience is limited, that’s why Swedish surgeons now spend time in South Africa to get trained. South Africa thereby helps Sweden to improve our trauma care skills. I strongly believe in more collaborative efforts between ‘the North and the South’ and think ‘reversed innovations’ and ‘reciprocal learning’ are terms that should guide also high income countries and health systems such as in the Netherlands. My strong advice is to keep and develop the Dutch postgraduate training in Global Health and Tropical Medicine. It will serve the Dutch population in the years to come.’’

Johan von Schreeb MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Specialist in General Surgery and Disaster medicine
Centre for Research on Health Care in Disasters
Global Health I Health System and Policy I Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet

dec 04 2017

#SupportAIGT #4 – Dr. Bolkan founder of CapaCare

Håkon Angell Bolkan is a general surgeon at Trondheim University Hospital, where he mainly manages emergency and trauma surgery. He has more than 15 years of experience in global international health. Håkon served as the President of MSF Norway between 2009 and 2011. In 2011 he founded CapaCare,, a non-profit organization offering medical training in areas where health care workers are scarce. Balkon’s main research interests are surgical health systems in low-income countries. We asked him why he thinks the Dutch postgraduate training programme ‘Global Health and Tropical Medicine’ is important and why he supports our campaign.

‘’Both as the CEO of a humanitarian medical organisation and during my research on surgical systems in low income countries, I have for many years had the privilege to work closely with Dutch global health doctors. Their unique set of skills, knowledge, motivation and attitude have inspired both our local and international staff. Their broad perspective, the focus on cost-effectiveness, the focus on health system improvements gained by working in highly under-resourced areas, make these doctors highly important, also in well-resourced settings like the Netherlands.

The recent West-African Ebola outbreak was an important wake-up call, demonstrating that failed health care systems may turn small epidemics into large global threats. In the same way as climate change demands international collaboration and solutions, many health issues demand similar international approaches. By spearheading programmes where the focus is to innovate, transform, improve and rationalize, often under very challenging conditions, the Dutch global health doctors are an important part of the development of healthcare systems in resource poor countries, and build invaluable bridges to our Western health systems.’’

Håkon A. Bolkan MD, PhD
Department of surgery, Trondheim University Hospital, Norway
Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, NTNU, Norway
Chairman of the board, CapaCare

For more information about CapaCare, visit https://capacare.org

nov 14 2017

#SupportAIGT #3 – dr. Stuart Ferguson

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow recently published a report on global citizenship in Scottish healthcare. We asked the author, dr. Stuart Fergusson, how he feels about the Dutch global health doctor and the campaign ‘Into the World’.

‘’For many years, international medical work by high-income country health workers was perceived as worthy but not of any particular benefit to the ‘sending’ nation and has attracted little official support. The evidence base against this view is steadily accumulating. In May 2017, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow published a policy report on this matter. My co-author and I outline how engagement in global health challenges brings back personal, clinical, policy and organisational benefit to high-income countries. Our report favourably quotes the Dutch approach of offering bespoke global health training to equip young doctors for service in a developing world context. These global health doctors then often return to the Dutch health service where their enhanced skill set proves attractive to many other postgraduate training schemes.

It is morally correct for health workers from well-resourced health systems to stand together with counterparts in low and middle-income settings, who battle daunting health challenges with precious little resource. But there is also a compelling pragmatic argument. As recent infectious disease outbreaks have highlighted, the health and safety of our populations depend – at least in part – on the functionality of healthcare systems far from our own. Our health systems and our health workers will also gain resilience, fresh perspectives, and new experiences in thinking and acting globally.
I am delighted to support the ‘Into the World’ campaign for better recognition of the value of international work undertaken by Western health care workers in resource-deprived settings. We are one global village of interconnected and interdependent people who must work together to meet the health challenges of our time.’’

Mr Stuart J Fergusson
Specialty Registrar in General Surgery and Honorary Clinical Lecturer

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“Global Citizenship in the Scottish Health Service: the value of international volunteering” is accessible here: rcp.sg/globalcitizenship

nov 04 2017

Prof. Rose McGready talks about the MD Global Health program

The ‘Into the World’ campaign focuses on the MD Global Health. Many of the published stories are inside perspectives. This week we want to highlight a different view. We recently asked professor Rose McGready, who has worked together on professional level with MD’s Global Health for the last 10 years about her experience on the residency program, the impact of these doctors on global health and their role in the future of healthcare.

Professor Rose McGready is Professor of Tropical Maternal and Child Health at the University of Oxford since 2014. She has been working at the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU) on the Thailand-Myanmar border since 1994. Her work and research concentrate on uncomplicated malaria in pregnancy. Most studies at SMRU are longitudinal cohort studies with follow up until years after pregnancy. They have increased our understanding of malaria and antimalarials; common tropical infections in South-East Asia; pregnancy related health problems such as anemia, nutrition in pregnancy and quality and practice of care by skilled birth attendants.

Continue reading and find out how Professor Rose McGready assesses the MD Global Health program:

“Health care in developed countries is amazing. The diagnostics and facilities available can be super sophisticated and these tests are surprisingly available to the public who need them. In limited resource settings there are problems with the basics, not just in term of resources in the laboratories and pharmacies, but also in terms of trained human resources such as midwives, nurses and doctors.
Our organization has had the good fortune to meet and work with MDs from the dutch Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHTM) training. They have profoundly influenced and inspired our work. They have a solid training on the basics and know how to implement these. Furthermore they have a wish to pass on their skills (in our setting to those who missed out on training opportunities due to conflict) and a vision to make a difference in the corner of the world where they work.
I do not know of a country as generous as the Dutch in this area – the GHTM MDs are excellent ambassadors for the Netherlands. Over the past 10 years we have employed more than 10 GHTM from this Dutch course. All of these doctors have paid attention to improving the staff they leave behind when their visa expires. GHTM doctors have played a significant part in the improvement in maternal and child health care.
The benefit is not just one way. Several of these doctors have gone on to use their experience here in the context of further education such as masters or PhDs, which provides a significant return on investment. These doctors are more appreciative of their own public health system, because they have learnt how desperate and fragile health systems are in other parts of the world.
Training doctors in GHTM is a very positive investment for the Dutch people of 21st century.

Yours sincerely,

Rose McGready,
Professor of Tropical Maternal and Child Health, University of Oxford
Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, Mae Sot, Thailand”

okt 04 2017

Marnix de Witte – Free Press Unlimited

This time we introduce Marnix de Witte, a former humanitarian worker who was based in South-Sudan last year. It goes without saying that Marnix was exposed to many life-changing experiences during his work in the field. One of them was that he realised that providing basic healthcare for all people, even of those living in conflicts areas, is of vital importance for their wellbeing. Since then he gained great respect for the Dutch Global Health doctors working in such environments and he is supporting our campaign ever since.

We interviewed him because his experiences give an interesting perspective on working in a humanitarian crisis. Marnix stresses the importance of public safety and independent and impartial free press. He regards it as an important determinant to improve public health, even in austere environments. Free press is essential to hold governments accountable and keep them inform their people on health issues. This is very important for global health doctors wherever they work in the world. Improving health and welfare is not only about providing healthcare, but human rights and free press are indispensable parts too.

Marnix de Witte graduated in human rights and is currently working for Free Press Unlimited to provide people all over the world with the possibility to have access to reliable and independent news.

After finishing his Master’s degree in Human Rights, he started working in Brussels to lobby for the rehabilitation of victims of torture. While working behind the desk, he realised that he would better understand struggles of vulnerable and oppressed populations, and to work in their direct support. Said so, he left for the Thai/Burmese border to work with human rights organisation Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG).

Marnix later spent fifteen months in South-Sudan, working for Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP). South-Sudan is the newest country in the world that has been in violent conflict since 2013. Nonviolent Peaceforce could be considered a start-up organisation in the humanitarian field with a hands-on-approach. It does not supply material goods, food or medication but instead is concerned with the protection of civilians in a non-violent way as it implements and promotes the concept of unarmed civilian protection.

During this period, Marnix has lived in different areas of the country such as frontlines in rebel held territory. These areas were only accessible by helicopter and Marnix and his colleagues, mostly South Sudanese, lived in a sober compound within the community. By building relationships with all levels of society and implementing this approach, they were able to find a way to help civilians and build sustainable structures that builds on local capacities. For example, they accompanied women searching for firewood to give them direct protection from sexual violence. Other activities include child reunification, mediation between different groups in conflict, empowered women during workshops and coordinating response efforts between different humanitarian organisations.

Marnix later spent three months in Leer County, in the centre of South Sudan, a place that had seen heavy and continuous fights for seven months prior to NP’s arrival. Marnix explains: “Leer was once a town of 25.000 people but after the fights it was completely destroyed. We took part of an emergency response mission and were tasked to map protection concerns in the surroundings of Leer. We searched for sheltering civilians and walked for hours in the polluted swamps where we found thousands of weakened women and children on little swamp islands. Most of the people where traumatised by the war, many women (possibly up to 70%) were raped and we found children and elderly people that had been left behind. To help these utmost vulnerable people, Nonviolent Peaceforce worked together with other NGOs who could bring them supplies and medical care. Amongst the NGOs was Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to whom NP, for instance, discreetly referred women who had suffered from sexual abuse and violence. Because there is a tremendous stigma on sexual abuse, these women received a small referral note that they could show to MSF for help without the need to explain their situation.”

After his fieldwork with Nonviolent Peaceforce in South Sudan, Marnix returned to the Netherlands where he now works for Free Press Unlimited. Currently he is working for an exiled media project called Radio Tamazuj that daily brings independent news to over one million people in South Sudan and across its borders. Radio Tamazuj’s big brother is Radio Dabanga – Darfur, broadcasting from Amsterdam, which reaches millions with news collected on the ground by interested individuals in Sudan (Northern Sudan alias the Republic of Sudan). Indirectly, the radio station contributes to informing and educating the audience on global health issues. A hot topic right now in Sudan is the cholera epidemic. The government authorities try to neglect this epidemic and restrain from its governmental duties. Fortunately, via Radio Dabanga, the people of Sudan can be provided with information about the cholera epidemic, for instance with instructions about hygiene and prevention. Besides, it is an important medium for the international response in the country, since it is also a channel to inform international health organisations about the spread and impact of the epidemic who in turn can reach out for the people on the ground.

Marnix is pleased with his work at Free Press Unlimited, to build the capacity of local media and support independent journalists in oppressed societies. Free Press Unlimited provides one of the important needs in life: independent and impartial news, very often on health-related issues, to people and responding organisations in conflict-affected countries worldwide.

Marnix together with his colleagues from Oxam Novib and Concern on their way to KokMarnix together with his colleagues from Oxam Novib and Concern on their way to Kok
Food distribution in Thonyor, Leer CountyFood distribution in Thonyor, Leer County
Food distribution in Thonyor, Leer CountyFood distribution in Thonyor, Leer County
Playing football with the kids in  Thonyor, Leer CountyPlaying football with the kids in Thonyor, Leer County

mei 16 2017

Triodos Foundation over Into the World

Een van de donateurs van ‘Into the World’ is de Triodos Foundation. Wij vroegen de directeur Ted van den Bergh: waarom steunen jullie ‘Into the World’?

“Er bestaat een lange traditie van ‘tropenartsen’ in Nederland, die veel kennis overgeleverd hebben. Door toenemende migratie en uitwisseling tussen de Westerse wereld en laag- en middelinkomen landen is er een groeiende behoefte aan deze specialisten op het gebied van internationale gezondheidszorg en tropengeneeskunde.  Juist ook, nu door het veranderende klimaat tropische ziektes steeds noordelijker voorkomen.

We mogen niet door een gebrek aan financiering dit specialisme door onze vingers laten glippen. Dat is eeuwig zonde.’’

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