Fellowship Brings Ethiopian Med Students to BGU
Fellowship Brings Ethiopian Med Students to BGU
July 23, 2014
Three medical students from the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Gondar in Gondar, Ethiopia have recently completed a two-month fellowship at BGU’s Medical School for International Health (MSIH).
The MSIH African Fellowship Program connects medical students from sub-Saharan Africa with faculty and medical students at BGU. The goal is to offer clinical experience and training in areas that are not offered in most medical schools in Africa, such as geriatrics, rehabilitation medicine, psychiatry and advanced trauma care.
Workey Tigabie, Naomi Teshome, and Hailemaryam Alemu arrived in Beer-Sheva from Ethiopia in mid-May and joined the fourth-year medical students at BGU for rotations in geriatrics and ophthalmology.
They then did a four-week psychiatry rotation under the supervision of Dr. Nimrod Grisaru at the Mental Health Centre in Beer-Sheva, where they worked with Ethiopian immigrants who had been admitted to the hospital.
This is the first year of a three-year pilot program, funded by Americans for Ben-Gurion University supporters including David and Bonnie Brand, the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation, Joanne Moore, and other contributors.
Building on already established connections at African medical schools, the MSIH African Fellowship Program will bring medical students from several universities in Africa where BGU currently has student and faculty exchanges.
Through these fellowships, students will develop particular skill sets and expertise that will dramatically enhance their abilities as future doctors in their home countries.
“I have received plenty of clinical experience, and appreciate the sophisticated medical care and technologies I am exposed to here,” says fellow Hailemaryam Alemu.
“I value being with the kind and helpful MSIH staff, and after graduating from medical school (this July) I plan to do my residency in internal medicine, and then pursue my master’s of public health degree.”
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