Visit to Infectious Disease Risk Reduction Project at the University of Northumbria: Dr Andrew Collins and his colleagues at the Disaster and Development Centre (DDC) within the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Northumbria are working on a DelPHE project with partners based in Mozambique and Bangladesh. The project’s focus is on progressing knowledge and understanding of infectious disease reduction with central Mozambique as its location for research.
Andrew met with Stephen Dunnett, Project Delivery Manager from the British Council’s UK DelPHE team, to give an update on the project’s progress to date. Three medical students from the Universidade Catolica de Mocambique in Beira, the country’s second city, have spent time at the International Centre for Health and Population Research in Bangladesh studying ecological aspects of the subject. Meanwhile two other Mozambican students have visited the University of Northumbria to explore the social and management elements. The students will become the staff of the future at the Mozambican institution so these exchange visits are crucial to capacity building.
In addition, an Infectious Disease Risk Reduction module has been introduced in Mozambique which has been taught by local staff to improve the capacity of students studying there. The project is also working closely with the local community in Mozambique helping them to identify infectious disease reduction risks for themselves and creating strong links between the local community and the university in Beira.
Andrew describes the project which has built on previous collaborations with the Bangladeshi partner as “happy and enthusiastic” with a very good team spirit. His advice to others thinking of undertaking DelPHE projects is to identify an existing development activity and build upon its existing strengths – so contributing as part of a longer process of development work throughout the world.