This week we had our latest planning meeting for the BU-led and THET-funded project in Nepal. The project has been running for over a year (following a six-month delay due to the terrible 2015 earthquake in Nepal). The project brings highly experienced UK health volunteers to train local community-based maternity care practitioners about the key mental health issues in pregnancy and after birth. The Centre for Midwifery & Maternal Health (CMMPH) works in collaboration with Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), the Department of Health, Physical and Population Education at Nepal’s largest university Tribhuvan University’s (TU). Our project is part of the Health Partnership Scheme (HPS), which funds health partnerships to carry out capacity-building projects in low-income countries, including Nepal. HPS itself is funded by the UK Department for International Development and managed by THET.
Halfway through the project we had an update meeting at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu to discuss and plan the second half of the project which runs until the spring in 2017. The maternal mental health project is a good example of BU’s FUSION approach as it combines Education (through the training of Auxiliary Nurse-Midwives) by UK volunteers (representing the Practice-element of FUSION) in an intervention that is Research-based in both its design and evaluation. The next group of UK volunteers is due to go out to southern Nepal in September 2016. The photo on the top shows one of the UK volunteers (a midwife from Aberdeen) in action with the aid of a Nepali translator during the latest training session in Nawalparasi in May 2016.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (CMMPH) and Prof. Padam Simkhada (LJMU & BU Visiting Faculty)
For international activity, there will be a range of sessions, drawing on the current priorties in BU’s Global Engagement strategy There will be spearate sessions for major international funders, including US
For the European dimension, we are planning a wide range of sessions relating to European funding opportunities, by a mix of online resources and face-to-face sesions introducing the EU funding landscape and key calls. Sessions will draw on the knowledge of BU staff and external facilitators. At these events, you will be introduced to the details of specific call types within the three pillars of


omy (www.larasa.org.za).
een Corridor (DGC), organization that offers adventure and eco tours along the uMngeni River Valley, presented their recommendation for the Inanda community development at the congress.


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Prof Marahatta promoting BU-Nepal collaboration
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