{"id":87090,"date":"2016-07-18T10:33:37","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T14:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?p=87090"},"modified":"2021-02-10T15:43:27","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T20:43:27","slug":"learning-by-assistant-teaching-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2016\/learning-by-assistant-teaching-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning by (Assistant) Teaching in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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July 18, 2016<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\"Selam
Selam Hailu (left) with Professor Hazel Bradley of the University of the Western Cape.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For MPH student Selam Hailu, assistant teaching has turned out to be a great way to learn.<\/p>\n

In South Africa, Hailu supported two short winter courses at the School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape (UWC)<\/a>. The courses are part of a new specialization at the school in pharmaceutical public health.<\/p>\n

Hailu studied pharmacology in her home country of Ethiopia, and went on to work as a pharmaceuticals sales representative, promoter, and ultimately client operations manager for European, American, and African accounts.<\/p>\n

But that, she says, didn\u2019t give her the big picture. \u201cI knew very little about how health systems work,\u201d Hailu says. So she came to the School of Public Health because \u201cstudying public health would help me see things from a broader perspective.\u201d That perspective, says Hailu, will help her better contribute to healthcare in Ethiopia when she returns.<\/p>\n

Hailu says both her pharmaceuticals background and SPH studies have been enriched at UWC, as she assisted with two weeklong courses, one on rational medicines use and the other on medicines supply management. The course lecturers included UWC Senior Lecturer Hazel Bradley, who heads the pharmaceutical public health program, and Richard Laing, professor of global health and extraordinary professor of public health at UWC.<\/p>\n

Her practicum included preparing lessons, completing course evaluations, and making contributions for next year\u2019s courses. She has also been helping put together the online versions of the classes.<\/p>\n

Guest lecturers from the South African Department of Health, Hailu says, have been particularly helpful in gaining insight into country-wide medicines management. \u201cThese are people who are involved in developing the Essential Medicines List and the procurement of medicines at the national level,\u201d she says. “It was really nice to hear their experiences and what they had to say about what the challenges are and how difficult things can be, and why they are so.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is plenty to learn from the students and other interns as well, Hailu says. \u201cThere are people from lots of different African countries here\u2014working in different sectors.\u201d They present an invaluable experience \u201cto understand why some processes work and others don\u2019t in their countries\u2014and hopefully try to understand if these can be translated into the setup that we have in Ethiopia and learn from other African countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her time in South Africa has also meant learning more about the history and public health needs of the country, she says. In particular, Hailu notes visiting a nearby township (an underdeveloped urban area for non-white South Africans during apartheid) with other UWC interns, and learning about health issues from residents firsthand. Hailu also visited Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years before the fall of apartheid\u2014an emotional experience, she says.<\/p>\n

Hailu\u2019s practicum is supported by a Santander Universities Scholarship<\/a>. \u201cThis experience would not have happened if it wasn\u2019t for the scholarship,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was basically a choice between not having this practicum and having it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Santander scholarship allowed me to come here, be in a different country, and learn so many different things. I\u2019m very thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Michelle Samuels<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Selam Hailu is taking over the SPH Instagram account from Cape Town, South Africa, from July 18 through July 22. Follow along at Instagram.com\/BUSPH\/<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Practicum student Selam Hailu assists two pharmaceutical public health courses at University of the Western Cape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10989,"featured_media":87094,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[1895,1899,1472,1875],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3523,3528,3532],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/87090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10989"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87090"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/87090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191401,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/87090\/revisions\/191401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87090"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=87090"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=87090"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=87090"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=87090"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=87090"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=87090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}