KOFIH is committed to strengthen health workforce in Tanzania
Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH) is a public organization affiliated with the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the Republic of Korea.
As a leading organization that specializes in healthcare support, KOFIH provides government-level aid for partner countries including Tanzania, and it operates the memorial project to honor the late Dr. LEE Jong-wook (6th Director-General of WHO)
Dr LEE Jong-wook Fellowship Program is a global training program that aims to strengthen the capacity of the healthcare workforce in partner countries through systematic, practical health and medical education and trainings.
This training program was initiated in 2009 and has so far invited 127 Tanzanian health workers to Korea for different training programs such as clinical experts, health policy and administration, disease research specialists, and high levels officials.
Furthermore, KOFIH Global Alumni Association (KGA) continues networking among fellows and feedback on training results through post-training activities.
Apart from invitational program, KOFIH also conducts local training program for biomedical engineers and technicians in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly, and Children.
The goal of this local training is enhancement of the medical equipment maintenance capacity which is an essential element for safety and quality management in healthcare.
As of 2020, this training program has nurtured 169 trainees from 108 facilities from different regions of Tanzania. This training program will resume in October 2021 and plans to train 30 trainees from 24 health facilities.
This year, KOFIH has established new training programs for infectious diseases specialists such as infectious diseases policy, epidemiology, diagnosis and clinical treatment course.
This program aims to strengthen the capacity of infectious disease prevention and control in partner countries. Three Tanzanian experts from National Public Health Laboratory returned after they completed policy, diagnosis and epidemiology course last September.
As the world is facing global pandemic, nurturing these healthcare experts will help strengthen the capacity of infectious disease response and contribute to healthcare improvement in Tanzania, Mr Seungrae Ha, the country representative of KOFIH Tanzania office added.
Edna Mgimba from National Public Health Laboratory who attended infectious disease diagnosis course says that she learned how Korea has responded to COVID-19 through 3T which is Trace, Test and Treat.
There are many screening and testing sites all over the country, effective utility of technology in diagnosis for infectious disease, prevention of transmissions by mass testing/screening and she learned how the government supports both public and private health facilities.
She also added that she learned how other countries fight against infectious disease apart from COVID-19 as well.
As a global partner to contribute to the advancement of healthcare, KOFIH will remain committed to expanding the cooperation with Tanzania for the capacity building in health sector.
