Students in McMaster University's newly launched master's in global health program
were praised for their enthusiasm, vision and commitment recently by former provincial
health minister Elizabeth Witmer.

“I'm impressed with your diverse backgrounds and interested to hear your excitement
about the program and the opportunities that still lie ahead for you,” said Witmer,
Member of Provincial Parliament for Kitchner-Waterloo, at a reception in University
Hall.

Witmer emphasized that the program is unique in North America and addresses a
“tremendous need”.

“I am proud to be affiliated with it. As a former minister of health I have always seen
the need to make sure we are providing a workforce and professionals to meet the
health needs of people not just in Ontario, but globally.”

The 12-month program is a unique partnership between McMaster and Maastricht
University in The Netherlands. Witmer chairs the program's advisory board and
specifically requested an opportunity to meet McMaster students in advance of next
month's board meeting in The Netherlands where she will also meet one-on-one with
students there.

It is the first Canadian-European partnership of its kind, offering 69 students (28 at
McMaster and 41 at Maastricht) the opportunity to study in their home countries while
working alongside students on another continent and sitting in on the same lectures in
real time through “synchronized learning.”

McMaster's inaugural class is a broad mix of cultures, ages, university degrees,
professions and life experiences. Ranging from 21 – 39 years of age, the students have
diverse backgrounds ( they come from Korea, Spain, Ghana, Pakistan, Ethiopia and
Canada). Many are bilingual. Among them, they speak 17 different languages.

The Global Health Office's second seminar earlier this week, held in partnership with
the Department of Surgery, featured the pioneering work in Africa of two Canadian-
trained physician missionaries.

Stephen Foster, founder and medical director of the 46-bed Centro Evangelico de
Medicina do Lubango in Angola, stressed that part of the solution for expanding the
supply and quality of health workers in Sub-Saharan Africa is to train non-specialist
care providers. Foster, for example, is training nurses in his hospital to do essential
surgery.

Pediatric surgeon Dan Poenaru, clinical director at Kijabe Hospital in Kenya, cited the
dire straights of the pediatric surgery workforce in Africa.

“Eight African countries need over 800 pediatric surgeons. Centres train one or two a
year, if at all.”

He said it was his “hope, desire and dream” that some students listening to him would
consider working in Africa where one of every 10 pediatric admissions are surgical.

Abee Raveendran said the doctors' presentations highlighted for her the value of the
knowledge she is acquiring in the global health program. “We are only half way through
the first semester and we already know exactly what they are talking about, such as the
challenges. We are all 'ok, we are getting it'.”

Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of The Netherlands is honorary chair of the global
health program.