Estonia to train Afghan doctors

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

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet stated that developing the health care sector in Afghanistan is 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 and fewer than 100 of them are doctors," said Paet.

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

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

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

 "At the moment, opportunities for medical workers in Helmand Province to receive any supplementary training after completing the appropriate school are extremely limited," stated Raisma. "With this project we hope to implement supplementary training 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 the concept for a Helmand Province health care worker training center. NGO Mondo will also help to furnish the centre and provide it with the necessary teaching materials.

In order to learn about the working order of Estonian health care facilities and the structure of the training system for health care workers, two health care workers responsible for Helmand Province in Afghanistan will come to Estonia for a two-week training visit in November. During the course of the training visit, the health care workers from Helmand Province will be given an overview of the administrative model, work order, and the nature of infection control used in hospitals of various sizes, as well as the possible forms of supplementary education for health care workers.

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