SPRING 2006 IN AFRICA | ABSTRACTS & REPORTS | EVENTS | PHOTOS |

Events & Conferences in Africa - Spring 2006
Training for African Sites of the Multinational Pilot Study on Firearm Injuries

Nairobi, Kenya
March 27-30, 2006


A training program was held in March in Nairobi, Kenya for physicians from five African countries who are participating in an IPPNW sponsored multinational hospital-based research pilot study on injury due to firearm violence.

Attending: Diego Zavala PhD, Puerto Rico (Training Instructor), Walter Odhiambo MD, Kenya, Simon Bokongo MD, DR Congo, Robert Mtonga MD, Zambia, Aminu Zakari Mohammed MD, Nigeria, Ismail Senoga MD, Uganda - as well as 4 other Kenyan doctors - Drs. Monica Mucheru, Samuel Njiru, Kairu Hiram, and Germine Surubuga Makory - and 3 Medical Students - Florian Hugenberg - IPPNW Germany, and Dedan Opondo and Angela Mwita, IPPNW Kenya

Thirteen representatives of 5 IPPNW African affiliates from Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo attended a 3 ½ day training in Nairobi, Kenya, organized by IPPNW and conducted by Dr. Diego Zavala of Puerto Rico, the Principal Investigator and director of a landmark 6-country international hospital-based pilot study on firearm injuries being conducted by IPPNW affiliates (including El Salvador.

The purpose of the training:Review the project goals, which include collecting contextual data on gun violence victims using a standard and thus comparable form; review the data collection procedures; discuss building country support with key health leaders for the program; and field test the data collection at Kenyatta Hospital. The hospital activities were arranged by Kenyan affiliate leader Walter Odhiambo. Entries into the survey forms were tested with ER doctors and nurses.

The training agenda can be viewed here. Please click here for photos from the training.

Funding for this was provided by Foreign Affairs Canada under a grant to IPPNW for our Aiming for Prevention program.

The next step, once additional funding is secured, is to launch the one-year research project at all 6 sites. Findings will be used to help inform policy decisions at the local, country and international level, and will be shared with medical and public health colleagues as well as the public.

For more information on IPPNW's Aiming for Prevention campaign, contact coordinator Maria Valenti in the IPPNW Central Office in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

posted April 27, 2006

IPPNW's "Aiming for Prevention" program is currently supported by grants from the Human Security Program at Foreign Affairs Canada.