Celebrating African Motherhood - Amref

HEADQUARTERS
Capacity Building
In 2007, AMREF launched a ten-year strategic plan focusing on ‘Enhancing
Capacity and Participation to close the Gap in Health Systems’. Consequently,
the Directorate of Capacity Building (DCB) was created as one of the three
core directorates of AMREF. The overall objective of DCB is to enhance the
organisational and technical capacity of health systems, communities
and civil society organisations so as to improve access and quality of care.
The directorate works with civil society organisations, communities and
Ministries of Health in Africa to build the capacity of health workers.
Basic and Post-Basic Training
• The Diploma in Community Health (DCH) Course was started in 1987 as
a partnership programme between AMREF and McMaster University
of Canada. The programme is accredited by Moi University in Kenya.
Since its onset, the programme has trained 531 students from 28
countries, including 23 students who graduated on December 2, 2009.
Out of the total of 531 students trained, 255 (48 per cent) are women
and 276 (52 per cent) men. These graduates are to be found at all levels
of the health system, leading and managing national health systems.
• AMREF has developed a Bachelor of Science degree course in
Community Health. The draft curriculum is undergoing review for
submission to the Senate of the Kenya Methodist University (KEMU)
for ratifi cation. The programme will be implemented jointly by AMREF
and KEMU.
• The second group of 44 students was admitted for AMREF’s two-year
Master’s degree in Public Health (MPH) course run in partnership with
Moi University. The fi rst batch of 27 students was admitted on January
28, 2008. Classes are held in the evenings at the AMREF International
Training Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.
Continuing Professional Development
• AMREF’s Short Courses are a response to the training needs of health
professionals in sub-Saharan Africa. The two- to four-week courses are
designed to meet the training needs and challenges of health workers
in their day-to-day work. In 2008/2009, a total of 876 participants
from 24 countries were trained, compared with 803 participants
from 28 countries in 2007/2008. The countries represented included
Afghanistan, Botswana, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia,
Germany, Ghana, Italy, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi,
Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan,
Seychelles, Tanzania and Zanzibar, Uganda and USA.
• 20 tailor-made courses were organised and conducted on consultancy
basis. These were mainly done in response to requests from
government agencies, NGOs and the private sector.
Distance Education Programme
AMREF pioneered the use of Distance Education in the 1980s to provide
continuing education to health workers in eastern Africa. The programme
has been popular mainly with health workers rural areas. In 2008/2009,
the programme enrolled 435 participants into its various courses. The
majority of students were from Kenya while the rest were from Somalia
and Southern Sudan.
eLearning Support Programme
• AMREF’S eLearning programme was started in September 2005.
The programme is a public-private partnership between the Nursing
Council of Kenya (NCK), AMREF, Accenture, the Kenya Medical Training
College and its constituent colleges, several private and faith-based
nursing schools and the Ministries of Health in Kenya. The programme
has so far enrolled 5,971 Kenyan nurses to be upgraded from certifi cate
(enrolled) level to diploma (registered) level. A replication strategy that
can be used to deploy eLearning across Africa has been developed and
is currently being applied in Uganda. A total of 32 nursing schools are
currently implementing eLearning across the country.
• AMREF’s Virtual Nursing School (AVNS) was launched in November
2006, with the fi rst intake of 50 students joining in March 2007. The
school was set up as a ‘laboratory’ to test how best to use eLearning
for providing quality nursing education in Kenya. As at September
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