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President Brodhead meets KCMC Executive Director Moshi Ntabaye
Published July 8, 2011, last updated on April 9, 2018 under Voices of DGHI
By Alyssa Zamora
DGHI Communications Specialist
History was made today, on this July 7, 2011, as it marked the first time a Duke University President has ever traveled to Africa while in office. (Listen to Brodhead's comments in the video below.)
There’s no better place than Africa to see Duke’s three core themes – interdisciplinarity, internationalization and knowledge in service to society – in action. This week, President Brodhead will see projects and faculty from eight Duke Schools in Tanzania and Uganda, meeting institutional partners as well as Duke students and trainees along the way who are receiving advanced training or working on various global health research projects alongside a community partner organization.
On day one, Brodhead and the delegation visited two student field sites in Mwika and Marangu where students are spending the summer immersed in global health research and service. At Marangu Hospital, Biomedical Engineering students Andrew Weitz and Hersh Lakdawala are repairing broken medical equipment as part of Engineering World Health. Laura Perry, a Duke alum now hired by EWH, is the on-ground coordinator for Tanzania. At Mwika Uuwo Dispensary, global health certificate students Neha Bakai and Katya Papatla are creating a peer mentoring program to increase enrollment and performance in secondary school with the hope it will also provide social support and an outlet for children to learn more about health. They are also working in the dispensary to increase the availability of information on health issues such as diabetes and creating medical forms to increase the efficiency of the clinic.
Brodhead also took a tour of Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC), its laboratory and new medical education building. During the tour, he learned about various research projects under way on tuberculosis, fever, adherence and resistance to antiretroviral therapy, HIV voluntary counseling and testing, and prevention of mother to child HIV transmission.
Brodhead described his first day in Africa as unforgettable and memorable at a welcome dinner hosted by KCMC Executive Director Moshi Ntabaye.