90% of blindness occurs in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), the places that are least prepared to deal with this burden, but about 90% of the research funding goes to High Income Countries (HICs). At Queens University Belfast, as part of a rapidly evolving global health scene, there is much to celebrate and be excited for in terms of the progress being made to change this statistic. As an ophthalmologist, who has spent over ten years in China developing appropriate approaches to vision impairments and diseases, it is an exciting time to be in Northern Ireland and to be part of pioneer ..read more

At the end of June we reached a milestone in the Health Partnership Scheme (HPS) which entered into its seventh year implementation. After six years of global health partnerships it is clear that the model has really come of age. The stats speak for themselves. In 2011, at the inception of the programme the target was to train 13,000 overseas health workers by 2015. In those four years over 38,000 had been trained and by June this year, following a two year extension over 84,000 health workers had been trained through projects in 31 countries. Impressive HPS figures abound but perhaps the nex ..read more

Mental health nurse Emma Gilbert has spent nine months volunteering in Kampala, Uganda, within the Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAHM) project implemented by the East London NHS Foundation and the Butabika Hospital. What follows is the account of her experience in Uganda.  With a background in anthropology and a career in radio, my interest for global health only developed at a later stage of my life. I qualified as a mental health nurse and from the beginning I found the idea of working in global health very appealing. When, in 2015, the East London NHS Foundation was looking for a ..read more

Linnet, one of our Country Programmes Coordinators, travelled to the WHO in Geneva to attend the third Global Forum on Medical Devices. Here follows an account of her time there.  The successful 3rd World Health Organisation’s Global Forum on Medical Devices was held over three days in Geneva. It brought together over 600 delegates from around the world, including three THET representatives (Andrew Jones, Anna Worm and myself). The great thing about the forum is the variety of people who attend from Beninese biomedical engineers to representatives of UN agencies and the private sector al ..read more

From an NHS in ‘meltdown’ to domestic politics in turmoil and recent tragic news events, ‘crisis’ seems to be the word on everyone’s lips and certainly the media’s! Last month as I sat at Heathrow watching the BA screens turn black, just a week after being in the midst of a cyber-attack on the NHS, Rudyard Kipling’s famous lines came to mind; ‘If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you’, I realised that I had already learnt that there is always another way of doing things. The newly elected WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reminde ..read more

Andrew Jones, Head of Partnerships at THET was at the Assembly this year, with Graeme Chisholm, Volunteer Engagement Manager, and participated in events focusing on essential surgery, Universal Health Coverage (UHC), global health security and workforce strengthening and development. Here follows his round-up: For the last two and a half years THET has been an NGO in official relations with the WHO, which allows us to work collaboratively on areas of common interest, defining a programme of work to suit those goals. One of the privileges it brings is the opportunity to attend the WHA in an of ..read more

Vincent Iusa is the manager of the St. Bernards Mannya Health Centre, situated in Masaka Province. Our colleague Edvige met him and his team in March 2017. Here’s the account of how the training he received through the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and the Kitovu Health Care Complex partnership - funded by THET - has changed the way he works and the experience of so many mothers in rural Uganda. The sun was just beginning to rise over the eastern shore of Lake Victoria when our trip began. Destination: Mannya, a small village situated about 160km from Kampala. It takes ..read more

Since the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment resulted in the creation of the Stockholm Declaration, there has been widespread international consensus that the approach towards developing the planet and caring for those who inhabit it should incorporate a considered and equitable approach.  Much has changed in the years since then, but many of the principles in the declaration hold true today, even if they have yet to be fully realised. As the World Health Assembly meets, many of these global priorities will be brought to the fore, not least and certainly not soon enough, the bur ..read more

At the recent Global Health Exchange: Improving Global Learning conference in Manchester, Ben Simms, THET’s CEO, gave a stirring keynote speech on the need to go beyond media headlines and act together to promote both a stronger NHS and a fortified global health environment. Joining speakers and delegates from across the UK and international health sector, from Public Health England, Royal Colleges and NHS overseas volunteers, the day was a fantastic moment in the health partnership movement reflecting the vital energy the Global Health Exchange is bringing to the global health and developme ..read more

The grief and grievances for those suffering from mental health problems are largely overlooked by both health and social sectors. In every street, in every corner, we find those suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders. They are silent victims of neglect and abuse experiencing human rights violations across the globe. Those we called our friends, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters in the past, today have become our enemies without committing any crime. Depression is the most commonly diagnosed mental illness in Zambia[1], alongside other neuropsychiatric disorders such ..read more