Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) and partners, through the NEST 360° project, hosted a three-day meeting and in-service training for health care workers from Mbeya, Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam facilities.

The project, which kicked off last year and is scheduled to last until 2022, aims to deploy NEST: a bundle of New-born Essential Solutions and Technologies designed to prevent and treat the leading causes of new born deaths in Africa.

NEST technologies are designed in partnership with African hospital to be effective, affordable and rugged. The project will allow clinicians to provide high quality comprehensive new born care keeping babies warm, helping them breathe, diagnosing infections, treating jaundice and other life-threatening conditions for small and sick babies.

Learn more about this project here.

The three-day meeting and in-service training, held at the Muhimbili University College of Health and Allied Sciences (Muhas), from July 13-17, 2020 aimed to build clinical and technical capacity to improve new borne care in selected facilities where the project will be implemented.

The NEST 360° partners in Tanzania are: IHI, Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology, Muhas and the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children.

Facilitators of the training included: Dr. Honorati Masanja, IHI Chief Executive Director; Dr. Felix Bundala, Acting Director of Reproductive and Child Health in the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children; Dr. Nahya Salim, Senior Lecturer and researcher in the Department of Pediatric and Child Health at Muhas; and Prof. Karim Manji, a pediatrician at Muhas.

The training was specifically designed to enable participants to understand how NEST will be implemented in Tanzania; review and agree on national neonatal guideline requirements; review and agree on facilitators’ guide for neonatal care training in Tanzania; identify training resources required; and establish the way forward to train instructors and mentors. #