TPO-Healthnet

Messages from this hospital

Information about this hopital

Description

TPO-Health Net is a Dutch NGO with which we would work together in the same sense as MWV previously worked with PNSM – Rwanda. They operate in 15 countries worldwide, including (in Africa) Eritrea, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. The Dutch expatriates merely provide technical support, whilst most of the people actually working for the organisation are Burundian.
Their activities are concerned mainly with health care:

In 2000, TPO/H started a mental health care project in 11 provinces (about 3/4 of the country) where they work with basic communes. It is a project geared to providing psycho-social assistance on the one hand and psycho-mental support on the other. People are selected from the villages to take part in 4 weeks of training. After this training, they are given the title of ‘psycho-social assistant’. They work with individuals, families, and groups in their village.
Furthermore, they also try to refer people who have some form of mental disturbance to the hospitals. The TPO/H mobile teams also provide training for the people who work in the hospitals so that these workers have a minimum knowledge of how to provide basic care for the people from the villages who are referred. TPO aims to move on towards capacity building.

Results of the missions

They are already sending some of their people to the CNP Kamenge for training which, amongst other things, is also given during missions of a voluntary doctor with a knowledge of psychiatry. They aim, above all, to provide training for the trainers: in view of the great need which there is of available and competent people, it seems best to them to concentrate on training people who already have some level of skill so that those people, in turn, can work at the grass roots and pass on their knowledge. It would be good if MWV could also work with this approach. This would mean a 2-week mission of training in basic health care given by someone with vision and teaching experience. There is also a huge need for neurology training: establishing a basic diagnosis (epilepsy, strokes/CVAs, Parkinson’s etc.) still presents a lot of problems: in May, EEG apparatus which they have purchased will arrive. A search is in progress for a neurologist to provide training in basic neurological diagnosis and EEG reading. The two other areas where they feel support is realistic: child psychiatry and support for projects in East Congo (Butembo together with Goma). Seeing that the partnership still has to be set up, it will be the end of 2010 before we can assess whether or not there should be an increase in the number of missions, depending on a request from van the local partner and if it is possible for MWV.

Missions in this hospital

Active missions in TPO-Healthnet

Past missions inTPO-Healthnet