BGU Students Promote Public Health in Ethiopia
BGU Students Promote Public Health in Ethiopia
January 3, 2013
BGU students are known for caring about others and wanting to make a difference in Israel and the world.
That’s what led BGU graduate students, Nitzan Kimmelman and Matan Friedman, to approach the University’s Africa Centre, and the late Prof. Tamar Golan (of blessed memory), to see how they could volunteer in Africa.
Prof. Golan connected them to Prof. Zvi Bentwich, founder of BGU’s Center for Emerging Tropical Diseases and AIDS, who has worked for years in Ethiopia to eradicate common parasitic infestations that contribute to Africa’s AIDS and tuberculosis epidemics.
After extensive training, a delegation of nine students from BGU is currently in the city of Makele, Ethiopia leading health education activities in the community.
For example, the BGU students are helping create “health clubs” at local schools that help children and their parents become more aware of hygiene and healthy habits, such as hand washing, that can help prevent disease.
“At one of the schools, a group of children and their teachers put on a play on the subject. It was amazing and moving, and came about through their own initiaitive. The play was seen by around 1,500 students in the community,” says Kimmelman.
Read more about the work Prof. Zvi Bentwich and BGU are doing to eradicate disease in Africa >>
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