Events Archive
People-to-people diplomacy efforts focus on health
During a visit to the University of Khartoum’s Faculty of Medicine hosted by the school’s dean, Dr. Mustafa Idris Elbashir, the U.S. Embassy’s Public Affairs Section donated to the school’s library several key medical school textbooks and medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, and Journal of Pediatrics. Dr. Amal Mohamed Saeed, director of the Educational Development Center for Health Professions, was also on hand to explain the center’s programs.
The donation is one of several similar donations the Embassy plans to make to medical schools across Sudan in the coming weeks. There are several dozen medical schools in Sudan. The medical school at the University of Khartoum is the nation’s oldest, having been founded in 1924. Its current student population is about 2,200.
In late 2006, the Public Affairs Section identified science and health care education as two worthy areas to attempt public outreach. The medical school book donations, training sessions and discussions on HIV/AIDS and avian flu, and the recent visit of Jefferson Science Fellow Dr. Osama Awadelkarim to Khartoum, are part of this growing outreach effort to Sudanese scientists, health care professionals, as well as journalists who cover science, health care, and the environment for the local media.