Recent Activities

Since 2008 Phi has been strengthening its links and activities with librarians and information professionals in both the UK and different parts of Ethiopia. We are supporting the development of a Library Skills module within a new MSc in Advanced Clinical & Laboratory Subjects at Gondar University, led by the Tropical Health and Education Trust supported Leicester /Gondar link. 

2010 April/May: Visit to UK - Phi hosted two visitors from Ethiopia, Getachew Bayissa, Head, Department of Information Studies at Jimma University and Petros Miskir, Lecturer and Head, Central Medical Library Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, for a professional development programme.

2010: Training visit to Gondar - Arrangements were made by Phi to enable Tatjana Petrinic (Cairns Library, University of Oxford) and Getachew Bayissa (Jimma University) to join Keith Nockels from the Leicester - Gondar Hospital and University Link in running a workshop to provide HINARI and informatics training to Masters students at Gondar University. She says of her experience, "I realised how much librarian tutors could offer at the health care front line in resource poor countries.” Read more.

Professor Mike Silverman (Leicester-Gondar Link), was also very pleased with the results. "By all accounts (direct and indirect) the first module of the new MSc programme in Gondar which was led by Keith was a great success.  I have had nothing but praise from all quarters. ... Many thanks for your help and efficiency in the development of this module." 

For earlier activities see General & Partnership Information - Ethiopia 

2012 March: Gracian Chimwaza came as a Commonwealth Fellow to the UK,  hosted by Phi, for discussions and visits with a number of organizations including the Institute for Development Studies, and the University of Staffordshire to learn about KOHA, open source software for library management systems.

2012 April:  Visit by Blessing Chataira, Programme Officer and Head of Continuing Education and Professional Development at ITOCA. Amongst other visits and engagements, she attended the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP ) International Training week, Kellogg College, in Oxford and participated in the Systematic Reviews Network Conference at Cardiff University.

KENYA 

Partnership: 

• Ken-AHILA (the Kenyan Chapter of the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa). Members of Ken-AHILA represent university, research, hospital, government and non-government health libraries throughout Kenya.
• Ken-HIP (Kenya Health Information Partnership). A consortium of libraries and librarians from across the South West, including NHS libraries, the library at the Government Office for the South West, and the Health and Social Care Library at the University of the West of England.

For earlier activities see General Information and Partnerships - Kenya

2010 26 Aug – 11 Sept: Visit to UK - Zuhanariah Mohd. Nordin (Head of Clinical School Libraries, International Medical University, Clinical School, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) visited the UK to enable her to attend the workshop Teaching Evidence at the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine, Oxford. Phi supported the visit by arranging orientation visits to complement the above course and enabling her to work with the library team in the Bodleian Health Care Libraries.

Partners: Partnerships in Health Information and the International Federation of Library Associations. Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression. 

2011: Workshop: Public Access to Health Information - The workshop followed the International Federation of Library Associations, Learning Materials for Public Access to Health Information workshops with the slides translated into Portuguese though the official language was English. Local facilitators and a volunteer from the group assisted with the translation of questions and discussion whenever necessary. Read more.

This workshop was funded by IFLA and Partnerships in Health Information with the support of the Universita Pedagogica of Mozambique and the WHO Office of Mozambique and facilitated by Paul Sturges and Shane Godbolt (Phi) in collaboration with Flatiel Vilanculos (WHO Mozambique) and Aissa Issak (Universita Pedagogica of Mozambique). 

2011: Workshop: Public Access to Health Information - Report of successful workshop now available.

Workshop planning and delivery was an international team effort with excellent local support led by Ibrahima Bob, former President of the Association for Health Information and Libraries (AHILA) working with Maïmouna Diallo, Director of the Library and Media Centre at  ENDA. The workshop was jointly facilitated by IFLA /FAIFE Committee member Philippe Colombe from the Pompidou Centre Library in Paris and Ibrahima Bob. Read Report

SIERRA LEONE

Partnership: The University of Sierra Leone, College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences Library and the University of Cardiff Library

2011 September: Safe motherhood project in Sierra Leone - In collaboration with the charity Life for African Mothers (formerly Hope for Grace Kodindo) this project will support a partnership between midwives in Sierra Leone and Wales to develop and evaluate a training programme and educational materials for midwives and traditional birth attendants which builds on, and contributes to, best practice in sub-saharan Africa.

This project builds on the success of a three year DelPHE-funded project Community health information for poverty alleviation in Sierra Leone which supported and evaluated the work of health promoters in Sierra Leone, a successful funding bid to Wales for Africa has enabled work to begin on a safe motherhood project in late 2011.

2006-2010 Partnership project - The partnership received DelPHE funding for a 3 year project: Health Information for Communities in Sierra Leone.  This project builds upon the success of previous partnership activities by focusing on community health information as a tool for poverty alleviation in Sierra Leone, by engaging the wider community. Read more.

2010: Visit to UK - Anthony Thompson Award - James Massally, the teacher-librarian at the Annie Walsh Memorial School, Freetown, Sierra Leone was the 2010 winner of the Anthony Thompson Award. (The School was involved in the above project to improve health information for the community.) James is also a Masters Student at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, pursuing an M. Phil. in Library and Information Studies. His motivation in applying for the award was to "use my knowledge and skills to contribute alongside others to national development in Sierra Leone….to help move school librarianship forward as the current Coordinator of School Librarians in my country… and to expand my knowledge in the area of Information and Communication Technology." Read more 

For earlier activities see General information and partnerships - Sierra Leione

TANZANIA

Partnership: Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, theTanzania Library Services Board and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Information services.

Between 2008 and 2012 the partners, together with Phi, are delivering a DelPHE funded project aimed at strengthening health libraries services throughout Tanzania, including: the selection of resources for ‘health corners’ in libraries, health information curricula development, and continuing professional development for librarians through UK/Tanzania exchange visits.

October 2011: Project visit to UK. Two health sciences librarians and one librarian from the public library system will make a short visit to the UK: 2-8 October. the emphasis will be on providing health information to the public. 

March 2011: Project visit to Tanzania - Visit by UK partner and Phi Officers to Tanzania to assess current progress of the project and assist its future completion. During their visit they will hold discussions with the DelPHE Project Team, the “Health Corners” Team and the Tanzanian Chapter of the Association for Health Information and Libraries. In addition, to this they held two workshops, and visit the Tanzanian Library Services Board, School of Libraries, Archives and Documentation Studies, and British Council personnel who administrate the project. They will also explore the possibility of a schools’ health club project, and the long term sustainability of the different strands of the current partnership project and finally plan for a September visit to the UK by the project team.

1. Health information literacy  was being introduced to the undergraduate curriculum in MUHAS. The program was due to go to the curriculum advisory board and be rolled out in September 2011. It is compulsory and will be assessed.  
2. Health information training is being introduced to the librarians curriculum programme in the School of Libraries, Archives & Documentation Studies at Bagomoyo (the School  is part of the Tanzanian Library Services Board).   
3. A “Health corner” had been set up in the University library as a pilot, but it will be augmented before a potential rollout to public libraries in the last year of the project.

UGANDA

Partners: The Sir Albert Cook Medical Library, Makerere University and  the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust Library and Information Service. Timeline history of partnership to 2011

2011 November:  Partnership visit to Uganda -  The Albert Cook Library at Makerere University is hosting a visit by Nasra Gathoni (President of the Association for Health Information and Libraries) Mr. Nick Naftalin OBE, FRCOG, (Chair of Phi) Shane Godbolt (Director of Phi) and Ania ⁱNogal  from the London Deanery. They will be facilitating training sessions on Building strong library associations and The Impact of the internet on delivery of healthcare information

2011 July: University Librarian from Makerere University visits UK - Dr Maria Musoke had an action packed visit to the UK from 6th - 16th July. She visited the Open University where discussions took place on the MSc Development Management, Scholarship Programme (in partnership with the Kulika Trust), and the Health Education And Training (HEAT) programme - a project to support the training of community health workers throughout Africa. Other highlights included: 

• A visit to the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, in Oxford
• A presentation with Shane Godbolt (Phi) and Gracian Chimwaza (ITOCA) at the CILIP Umbrella Conference 
• A meeting in the achievements of the outreach project were described and ways forward discussed with the Uganda partners, Phi Officers, representatives from the Manchester/Gulu link and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and representatives from Elsevier, the funders of the project. Read more

The visit was only marred by the sad report of Sara Mbaga’s death, made all the more poignant since she was to have been with us. 

2011: Visit to Gulu’s Regional Hospital and University - Donna Schofield, the Library Services Manager for the University Hospital of South Manchester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, received support and contacts from Phi when she visited Gulu in northern Uganda, where the UK Hospital has a Global Health Link with the Regional Hospital and University in Gulu in northern Uganda.

One of the results of this visit was a decision by the Referral Hospital to create a library for nurses - previously they lacked information resources.

Through Phi, Donna had fruitful discussions with Alison Kinengyere (Serials librarian at Makerere University) and her colleagues Olive Kihika, Sylvia Matovie and Wilberforce Lubowa Musoke representing the Uganda Chapter of the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa and the partnership between the Sir Albert Cook Medical Library, Makerere University and the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust Library and Information Service.

2010 July: Phi hosted the visit of Alison Kinengyere, Serials Librarian at the Albert Cook Medical Library, Makerere University between 17-28 July 2010.  The visit included: Co-presenting a paper with Shane Godbolt at a conference, Meetings with: Ken-HIP to discuss African Index Medicus, INASP and Maria Cotera and Susan Mahoney to discuss their visit to Uganda as part of the African Prisons Project.

2010: Phi support - Maria Cotera and Susan Mahony have been advising the African Prisons Project on all aspects of development of its library activity including its operations and management of staff. Funding for Maria Cotera’s air fare was provided Phi. 

2010 Proposal to Elsevier - The partners successfully secured funding to delivery a three-year project aimed at increasing access to health information for health workers in rural Uganda and providing practical training sessions for community health problem solving. Read more.

For earlier activities see General information and partnerships - Uganda

ZAMBIA

Link: supported by THET, between the University of Zambia, Medical Faculty; University Hospital Nurse Training School and the Medical School Library for the Brighton and Sussex Medical and Nursing Schools.

2010 September: Training visit to U.K - Visit by Francina Makondo (Medical librarian at the University of Zambia and Edward Phiri (Nursing Librarian) to discuss: effective information skills programmes and current awareness services to health professionals, setting up institutional repositories, evidence based health care and systematic reviews, and the acquisition of health information resources including those in electronic formats. Read more.

For earlier activities see General Information and partnerships - Zambia