Estonia Helps to Create Supplementary Training System for Afghan Doctors
14.09.2009
The Foreign Ministry is supporting MTÜ Mondo in creating a supplementary training system for doctors in Helmand Province.
Foreign Minister Urmas Paet stated that developing the health care
sector in Afghanistan is a very important goal of Estonian development
co-operation. “In Helmand Province, which has a population comparable
to that of Estonia, there are only slightly more than 1300 people in
the health care sector and fewer than 100 of them are doctors,” noted
Foreign Minister Paet. “Increasing the accessibility of medical care
through continuing education will allow for Afghans’ quality of life to
get better, step by step,” he added.
The health care workers of Helmand Province lack the opportunity to
acquire further medical education. According to the Estonian health
care expert in Afghanistan Anu Raisma, the goal of the project is to
increase the capabilities of health care workers by offering them
opportunities for further education and training. “At the moment,
opportunities for medical workers in Helmand Province to receive any
supplementary training after completing the appropriate school are
extremely limited,” stated Raisma. “With this project we hope to
implement supplementary training for medical workers, participate in
the creation of a training centre, and support a school for nurses and
midwives,” she added.
Within the framework of the project, NGO Mondo will help to work out
the concept for a Helmand Province health care worker training centre.
NGO Mondo will also help to furnish the centre and provide it with the
necessary teaching materials.
In order to learn about the working order of Estonian health care
facilities and the structure of the training system for health care
workers, two health care workers responsible for Helmand Province in
Afghanistan will come to Estonia for a two-week training visit in
November. During the course of the training visit, the health care
workers from Helmand Province will be given an overview of the
administrative model, work order, and the nature of infection control
used in hospitals of various sizes, as well as the possible forms of
supplementary education for health care workers.
The two-year project will be supported by 1 099 980 kroons from the Foreign Ministry’s development and humanitarian aid budget.
