The
Training for Health Renewal Program (THRP) is an exciting
international health initiative linking institutions and
communities in Mozambique with institutions and communities
in Canada.
Mozambique Health Workers Tour North
Oct 4, 2011- Last week a group from Mozambique went on a tour of the Saskatchewan north doing research into what can be done to build healthier communities in their homeland.
The trip was made possible by a partnership between the University of Saskatchewan and Mozambique’s health ministry. Don Kossick of the university’s Training for Health Renewal Program said there exists many similarities between the two regions. Read full article...
Partnerships
Please view a special video about a long term relationship between Pine House Community School in Saskatchewan with a sister school in Mozambique facilitated through the Training for Health Renewal Program.
Please view a tribute video recognizing the long standing support that the CAW Social Justice Fund has given to the Massinga Training Center in Mozambique.
Check out a short video documentary on the 10 year history of the Training for Health Renewal Program connecting Canada and Mozambique.
THRP is a co-operative partnership between the University
of Saskatchewan health science colleges and the Ministry
of Health in Mozambique.
THRP
sees human-centred development as the ultimate goal of
health work; and "new" community health practice
as a means through which health workers and communities
can take action to achieve human-centred development.
THRP is committed to building the capacity of institutions
and communities to deal directly with HIV/AIDS, malaria
and other major diseases. The program works to strengthen
both health systems and local communities so they can develop
positive social and economic conditions for health.
Training and Community
Training health workers to engage with communities is
a major priority in strengthening the health system. Many
of the 17,000 health workers in Mozambique are not adequately
trained to confront the new realities such as combating
the HIV/AIDS pandemic. At the Massinga
Centre for Continuing Education in Health located in rural Mozambique health
workers learn to work with communities. Using a training
of the trainers approach, health workers learn community
participation and engagement methods in order to train
other health workers.
With the loss of trained health workers due to illness,
especially AIDS, the Mozambique health system is unable
to expand its coverage beyond 60 per cent of the population.
Overall, SubSaharan Africa is facing a major crisis in
the lack of appropriately trained health workers. The Minister
of Health of Mozambique sees the Massinga Training Centre
as setting the standard as a national model for health
training linked to communities.
Responsive Institutions
The THRP program and the Massinga Training Centre arose
out of the desire of the Mozambican Ministry of Health
to strengthen the capacity of health training institutions
to respond to community needs and participation. Other
Mozambique-Canada partnerships have shown that a community-based
participatory methodology is effective in engaging people
to enact healthier practices.
Although Mozambique has gone through a terrible internal
conflict, floods and famine, and structural adjustment,
it has remained committed to eliminating absolute poverty
and providing health and education for all.
Strengthening the Health System and the Local Community
A critical step in confronting HIV/AIDS is to strengthen
the capacity of Mozambique to train health workers committed
to, and skilled in, creating more equitable and effective
relationships with each other and the communities they
serve. Parallel to this is the need to strengthen the ability
of communities to engage in a participative way in building
a healthy community.
Rooted in popular education, health promotion and community
development approaches, Massinga Centre staff work with
local people to develop their capacity to build a healthy
community.
They do this through:
community participation;
discovery-based teaching and learning methods;
critical inquiry and integration of HIV/AIDS and gender;
sustainable institutional change
and linkages.
In
the partner communities of Tevele and Basso, community
health activists conduct door
to door health risk
surveys, create education programs on how to prevent
malaria
and HIV/AIDS, and engage the wider community in economic
and social development. Partners
train health workers to practice their professions
with community.
Mutual Learning - Making the Links
Institutions and communities in Canada link directly with
and learn from the work in Mozambique. Through its leadership
and involvement with the International
Interdisciplinary Community-University Student Partnership (IICUSP) THRP
contributes to the development of innovative health training
in Canada. Canadian health science students are placed
with community based organizations to learn about community
health and development in both Canada and Mozambique. This
mutual learning and exchange strengthens the capacity of
health workers, locally and globally, to build healthy
communities.
Supporting Our Work
The
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is a
major funder of the program. In addition, many Canadian
organizations and individuals support the work on the ground
in Mozambique. For example, the Canadian Auto Workers are
contributing considerably to the infrastructure of the
Massinga Training Centre. Schools, church members and others
are supporting community projects related to the Massinga
work through the Mozambique
Building Fund.
Oct 4, 2011- Last week a group from Mozambique went on a tour of the Saskatchewan north doing research into what can be done to build healthier communities in their homeland.
Training health workers to engage with communities is
a major priority in strengthening the health system. Many
of the 17,000 health workers in Mozambique are not adequately
trained to confront the new realities such as combating
the HIV/AIDS pandemic. At the 
Rooted in popular education, health promotion and community
development approaches, Massinga Centre staff work with
local people to develop their capacity to build a healthy
community.
Institutions and communities in Canada link directly with
and learn from the work in Mozambique. Through its leadership
and involvement with the