Fwd: CAPACITY BUILDING FOR PUBLIC HEALTH OER REVIEW AND RESPONSE

[AMADI MARTHA]

Note: forwarded message attached.

[akina...@gmail.com]

PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUES AND OER IN AFRICA.
Dear participants
I am Akin Adejimi, a lecturer in the Department of Architecture,
Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ibogun campus
In Africa, a high percentage of the people are ignorant, superstitious
and poor. (ISP). This has negatively affected the continent’s
health. The endemic nature of malaria and other African related
diseases kill millions of Africans yearly. This is not always because
of the intensity of the diseases, but the ignorant and superstitious
attitudes towards the treatment of them. In most African countries,
diseases are at times worshiped, and appeased. For example in many
parts of Nigeria causes of diseases are looked at as follows.
a. Diseases as gods.
Small/chicken pox is deified as a god and when it strikes, the god
must have been annoyed and need to be appeased with rituals.
b. Witches And Wizards
In Yoruba land of Nigeria, little is known about HIV/AIDS until
recent, instead, it is believed that such health problems like the HIV/
AIDS and others that are yet to have cures are brought about by the
nefarious activities of witches and wizards. It is believed that when
a man offends the witches they can decide to be sucking his blood
gradually, while the victim wastes away and loses weight until he is
dried out and then die.
c. Oyinbo Disease
Others believe that HIV / AIDS is an Oyinbo (white) man’s disease and
that it does not affect the Africans. Many also believe further that
there is nothing like AIDS, otherwise, why are we not all dead of the
disease through mosquito bites by now?
d. Malnutrition.
Some argue that HIV / AIDS is a form of the results of malnutrition
and poverty. Their belief is that when a body is suffering from
malnutrition, it is open to all sorts of diseases that drains the body
until the person breaks down and dies.
While the ignorance, superstitions and poverty continued, conventional
education has failed Africans. It has segregated Africans into ‘the
poor and the rich’. The majority, because of their poverty are the
ignorant, and superstitious. Even, there is a big digital divide in
the modern day e-learning. All these are why OER is highly needed to
reduce these divides and save the majority of Africans from these ISP
supported diseases. To achieve this there is a serious need for
intensifying efforts in capacity building in this area.

Thanks

Akin Adejimi
Department of Architecture, OOU, Nigeria.


On Jun 11, 3:35 pm, AMADI MARTHA <drnkyam...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Note: forwarded message attached.
>
>
>
> [ Attached Message ]From:AMADI MARTHA <drnkyam...@yahoo.com>To:acde-2008-onli...@googlegroups.comDate:Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:13:49 -0700 (PDT)Local:Wed, Jun 11 2008 3:13 pmSubject:Fwd: CAPACITY BUILDING FOR PUBLIC HEALTH OER REVIEW AND RESPONSE
>
>
>
> Dear friends,
>   My name is Dr. Amadi Martha, a Research Fellow in Regional training and Research Institute (RETRIDAL), National Open University of Nigeria.
>   Capacity- building for Public Health, OER Review and Response.Most transistion countries have to cope with a wide range of health ptoblems that interfere with their future economic development. Health inequalities are widening and health care is becoming unaffordable. In several countries, improvements in maternal mortality have reached a plateau. A major priority are in the areas of AIDS, tuberculosis, diabetes, cancer and common infectious and emergence of chronic disease epedermics.
>   Most pathetic is the late diagnosis of some of these diseases to the affected patient. A trained workforce of health professionals is essential but, for many reasons there is currently  lack of adequate capacity. Capacity- building is thus essential, but inadequate at present.
>   An insipiration should be on the free and open- source software movement. Many hundreds of individuals have contributed to the development of high- quality software which is freely available on the internet. But, the questions are:1. Can this be applied in the field of public health for capacity- building ? 2. How many institution are fully aware of this educational development of OER ?
>   As in the field of education, there are now parallel development of OER. It is an ever- expanding range of high- quality online resources that are freely available on the internet.
>   Building on these needs of inspiration, a new educational approach will be based on educational initiative on educational resources available on the internet. If we can develop an educational context around the resources that are freely available, it will provide a low -cost solution to capacity- building to the developing nations.
>   Looking at the situation analysis, in Nigeria, there is a lack of public health capacity, particularly in rural areas. An existing ICT around the centres will be involve in the initiative, and several institutions and individuals have expressed their willingness to collaborate.
>   For the successful development of this initiative, attention should be paid to the following: materials, teachers, accreditation of learning development of education, approach, evaluation and organization.
>
>   My Regards
>   Dr Amadi Martha.
>
>
>
> [ Attached Message ]From:trolow...@gmail.comTo:ACDE 2008 Online Virtual Forum <acde-2008-onlin...@googlegroups.com>Date:Fri, 6 Jun 2008 10:04:22 -0700 (PDT)Local:Fri, Jun 6 2008 6:04 pmSubject:CAPACITY BUILDING
>
> Dear All,
>
> I am Tayo Olowola, a Training and Liaison officer with Regional
> Training and Research Institute for Open and Distance Learning
> (RETRIDAL), National Open University of Nigeria. My understanding is
> that OERs have lots of potentials for capacity development of
> personnel in higher education institutions and it seriously
> facilitates the process of lifelong learning in all ramifications. It
> also serves as an avenue for sources of manuals for training catalogue
> since it allows for literature consultations. My opinion is the need
> for contributions from all and sundry so that there will be an
> availability of a robust literature that would stand a test of time in
> whatever form of ICT.
>
> Regards.
>