Knowledge for Change – Opportunities for Multi-disciplinary Placements in Global Health
Knowledge for Change (K4C) is a UK and Ugandan registered NGO that supports systems-change through capacity-building in Uganda. We run a number of high-profile projects at any one time, grounded in active relationships with Fort Portal Health Sciences University, Kabarole Health District, local schools and NGOs in Uganda. The work is constantly evolving as new interventions emerge. We are also very happy to respond to any ideas or interest students have.
Costs
Fort Portal (Uganda):
Tuition Fee: £1,200
Accommodation: £200 per month
Accommodation (Entebbe – 1 night on arrival): £20
Airport Transfers (return journey): £100
Kampala (Uganda):
Tuition Fee: £1,200
Accommodation: £300 per month
Accommodation (Entebbe – 1 night on arrival): £20
Airport Transfers (return journey): £50
Zanzibar (Tanzania):
Tuition Fee: £1,200
Accommodation: £320 per month
Airport transfers (return journey): £20
Relevant projects for 2022 and beyond
Rehabilitation For People with Limb Loss and Damage: What do People with Disabilities Want and How do we meet their needs?
In February 2022 K4C will open the first Rehabilitation Centre for People with Physical Disabilities in a Ugandan public hospital. The Centre is attached to the orthopaedic workshop. We are also opening a virtual learning centre on the premises with resources to develop user-engagement and are very keen to find out what people with limb loss and damage in Uganda know about service availability and how they experience artificial limbs provided by our team at the workshop.
We have 2 staff at K4C who have direct experience of limb loss and would be keen to work with you in this area.
What is the Role of Foreigners and Foreign Aid in International Development? How do student placements benefit Uganda and Norway?
This is an underlying theme that underpins all the work K4C is involved with. It concerns the human resource dynamics of international programs including student placements. Previous work undertaken by K4C has been published (see below).
We are continuing to develop this work and a Salford University PhD students will be part of the team based in Uganda and able to support you in this area of work. Or work so far has focused on the Uganda-UK context. Maybe you would be interested to explore Norwegian policy and practice in this area?
Healthcare, Frugal Innovation and Professional Voluntarism: A Cost-Benefit Analysis (2017 – Open Access)
Educating Girls in Uganda
Girls have always had second place when it comes to deciding who to educate in families in Uganda. COVID-19 has had a major impact on children’s education with children out of school for over 2 years; one of the longest school lock downs in the world.
What are the consequences of this for girls? In terms of their education (will many never return?)
Much of the health education in Uganda around HIV, reproductive health and cervical cancer prevention (through HPV vaccination) takes place through primary schools. What impact has lock down had on pregnancy rates, incidences of rape and disease prevention?
We are currently working with a team of colleagues on this issue including work with 2 ‘Senior Women’ – teachers with the specific responsibility for health education.
Are you interested to explore some of these impacts and ways of improving girls’ education with school and/or ways of meeting their needs outside of the formal school environment?
Attitudes to Medicines and Increasing Preferences for Intravenous Medication
K4C has done a lot of work in recent years on the growing problem of Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR). AMR is becoming one of the most significant global threats as overuse of antibiotics reduces their effectiveness. In the future more people will die from simple infections. Antibiotic overuse in Uganda will have an immediate impact on the health of people in Norway and the UK.
Anti-Microbial Resistance in Global Perspective | SpringerLink: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-62662-4
Antimicrobial resistance is a major threat to the well-being of patients and health systems the world over. In fragile health systems so challenged, on a day-today basis, by the overwhelming burden of both infectious and non-communicable disease, it is easy to overlook the impacts of AMR.
This is not a problem just for clinicians. We need to understand why it is that people want to consume so many antibiotics? In Uganda you can simply buy them in shops. We are staring to find that the public have a preference for IV antibiotics, and many are having such treatment unnecessarily. Why is that?
You will see children playing in the streets with IV lines in their hands. Is this not a cause of infection for them?
One of our team has been working on public preferences for IV antibiotics so we can learn more about why the public in Uganda are so keen to take antibiotics and, why they prefer IV antibiotics.
Supervision and Support
Students would be supervised by actively engaged staff at the University of Salford, supported by Salford’s doctoral researchers, K4C Professional Volunteers and Ugandan professionals (including a dedicated Placement Manager) on the ground in Uganda. Students will have the option to spend 2-4 weeks in the Knowledge and Place Research Group prior to their empirical work in Uganda and/or a period with the group on their return to support data analysis and writing up.
Email: H.L.Ackers@Salford.ac.uk
Websites:
www.Knowledge4Change.org.uk
www.Salford.ac.uk/research/care/ research-groups/knowledge-and-place
Phone/Whatsapp: +44 (0) 161 7977409985
Twitter: ‘@K4C_Uganda’
Facebook: ‘Knowledge4Change
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