GROWING MOs FOR OUR AFRICAN BROs

!We have imaginatively re-branded our campaign Moustachember due to copyright infringement laws regarding the much more palatable and well known pun Movember(c)!

Every year 60 doctors from around the world come together in East Africa to study for a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. This is made up of 40 international doctors, and 20 doctors from East Africa whose fees are subsidised through scholarship.

This year the we are raising money to create the 21st scholarship for an East African doctor. To do this the boyz on the course will be growing out their moustachios for the month of November, or Mo-vember as it has come to be known. Along with the girls we will then be running in the Kampala marathon on the 24th November - people will be running the 10km, the half, or even the full (depending on the number of samosas consumed between lectures). The girls will of course be running with some form of upper lip decoration, natural or otherwise. There is also noise about a couple of the ladies shaving their heads for the cause...

 

This page is not designed to deliver a sob story about the state of healthcare in Africa, the media does this enough. We are not asking you to give to a project that may never get off the ground, or to buy ventilators that will break and never be used. We are asking you to help African doctors tackle Africa's healthcare problems, providing them with the training and education they need to treat their patients, undertake world class research, and pass on their skills to generations of African doctors in the future. And yes, that's the sweet aroma of sustainability that you're smelling...

 

We appreciate your generosity. It is generosity that will be multiplied by many factors and passed on to those who need it most.

 

Many thanks,

 

The East African Mo Bros and Sistas

 

 

A LITTLE ABOUT THE COURSE

The Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTM&H) has been run in London for over a century. Whilst this made it easy for world experts to drop down from their offices and deliver the lectures, the pathology was not there to be studied. Three years ago it was deemed logistically possible to run the diploma in an African setting, to learn about tropical medicine in the environment in which it exists. This also opened up the opportunity of allowing more East Africans doctors to attend the course. 

Students start by spending 6 weeks at KCMC hospital which is in Moshi, Tanzania. The second half of term is spent at Malago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. The course consists of a series of lectures, clinical rounds, and rural health placements. The course is run by world experts, both from the London School and various countries in East Africa. The result is world class teaching and a deep experiential learning environment. Not only does this give doctors skills to take into their clinical practice but it gives them the opportunity to start a relationship with the academic powerhouse that is the LSHTM, and be part of a truly global community of medical experts. We believe that this privilege should not be confined to those who work in higher income countries, hence the contingent of East African doctors on the course.

The cost of the course is £6,500 per student, with another £2000 needed for accommodation, travel and logistics. Whilst there are many international doctors that are able to drum up the funds (albeit with a bit of saving...), the cost would make the course inaccessible to many of the East African doctors who work just as hard, and often much harder, for less wage in the pocket. They therefore attend with the help of scholarship. We want to raise the funds to give this valuable opportunity to another African doctor on next year's course, and hope the tradition of an East African Moustachember continues for years to come.