Imagine this scenario: as a new medical student you attend a school with no classrooms, no teaching materials, a library of six books and one part-time instructor.
Three years ago, this was the situation for 200 students at the University of Juba’s College of Medicine, the only medical school in Southern Sudan. The students themselves were malnourished and had one source of drinking water – direct from the Nile River. They lacked essential bed netting and were under-immunized. Yet, these 200 people represented the nation’s only hope of training a cadre of resident doctors.
Join Thomas Burke, M.D., chief of the Division of Global Health and Human Rights at the Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School on Wednesday, Sept. 14 as he tells the story of these students. He will also describe his involvement in Africa with an ambitious community-based maternal, newborn and child survival initiative that aims to relieve the worst maternal and infant health conditions in existence today.
Dr. Burke’s extraordinary experiences include managing emergency programs for the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, the U.S. Army, and in hospital settings all over the world. In the public health arena, he is a senior emergency physician, a teacher, a researcher and a global leader in the nonprofit sector directing overseas health interventions.
Dr. Burke's lecture, "Healing South Sudan" will be given in the Sandu Conference Center, Second Floor, Room D.
This event (free and open to the public) is sponsored by the Chancellor's Office, Peace Studies Program, Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Master of Science in Health and Strategic Communication in the Crean School of Health and Life Sciences, Schmid College of Science and Technology, and Master of Science in Health.
