Estonia to train Afghan doctors

TALLINN- The Estonian Foreign Ministry has announced their support of MTU Mondo increating a supplementary training system for doctors in the Helmand Province ofAfghanistan.

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet stated that developing the health caresector in Afghanistanis a very important goal of Estonian development co-operation.

"In Helmand Province, which has a population comparable to that of Estonia,there are only slightly more than 1300 people in the health care sector andfewer than 100 of them are doctors," said Paet.

"Increasing the accessibility of medical care through continuing educationwill allow for Afghans' quality of life to get better, step by step," he added.

The health care workers of HelmandProvince lack theopportunity to acquire further medical education.

According to the Estonian health care expert in Afghanistan Anu Raisma, thegoal of the project is to increase the capabilities of health care workers byoffering them opportunities for further education and training.

 "At the moment, opportunities formedical workers in Helmand Province to receive anysupplementary training after completing the appropriate school are extremelylimited," stated Raisma. "With this project we hope to implement supplementarytraining for medical workers, participate in the creation of a training centre,and support a school for nurses and midwives," she added.

Within the framework of the project, NGO Mondo will help to work out theconcept for a Helmand Province health careworker training center. NGO Mondo will also help to furnish the centre andprovide it with the necessary teaching materials.

In order to learn about the working order of Estonian health care facilitiesand the structure of the training system for health care workers, two healthcare workers responsible for Helmand Province in Afghanistanwill come to Estoniafor a two-week training visit in November. During the course of the trainingvisit, the health care workers from Helmand Province will be given anoverview of the administrative model, work order, and the nature of infectioncontrol used in hospitals of various sizes, as well as the possible forms ofsupplementary education for health care workers.

The two-year project will be supported by 1 099 980 kroons from the ForeignMinistry's development and humanitarian aid budget.