Yidnekachew Girma Mogessie, a medical student at St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa, was one of 12 students from around the world named in June 2019 as winners of the Student Projects for Health awards. The awards are given by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) and its Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER), two nonprofit groups based in Philadelphia. Addis Standard reported the award in Addis Ababa on 4 July.
His project, Sexual Health Education for Better Awareness, known as SHEBA, set out to close gaps in what young Ethiopians know about reproductive health. The organizers’ announcement said that among Ethiopian women aged 15 to 19, five million were already mothers and two million had experienced an unwanted pregnancy, and that HIV rates in cities rose by two percent in 2018. The project’s own analysis found that poor information about family planning services was the root cause of unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions and other reproductive health problems.
SHEBA uses volunteer medical students from Ethiopia and Denmark to give young people sexual health education in a youth-friendly way. It had trained 54 medical students as peer educators and 240 rural high school students as SHEBA trainers who raise awareness about sexual and reproductive health and rights in their own communities. Through the project, 98 students received family planning services, including safe abortions, at no cost, according to the announcement.
The award paid for Yidnekachew to present the project at the 2019 conference of The Network: Towards Unity for Health, held from 10 to 13 September in Darwin, Australia, covering air travel, hotel and registration. The organizers chose the 12 winners, from nine countries, out of 72 submissions reviewed by an international panel of 18 people, judging the quality of each project, the student’s role and innovation, and its impact. Other African winners that year came from Sudan, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa. Since the competition began in 2015, it has honored 75 students from 22 countries.
“The quality of this year’s projects and the engagement of these students in improving the health of their communities are truly inspiring,” said William W. Pinsky, president and chief executive of ECFMG and board chair of FAIMER.
Sources: Addis Standard, FAIMER, Aigaforum (ECFMG/FAIMER announcement)