Medical students off to Aweil for field activities
The administration of the University of Western Bahr el Ghazal has sent 34 fifth-year medical students to Aweil for field activities after seven years of its suspension.
With the supervision of their college professors, the students are expected to provide health services to the communities in Aweil and conduct further research on the recent fish disease in the area.
Prof. Charles Wani, who spoke on behalf of the university’s vice-chancellor and deputy dean for academic affairs, told the media that activity had ceased in 2014.
He said with their first trip to Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State, the students are expected to stay in Aweil for seven days to complete the activities before they return to the campus.
Wani commended the fifth-year medical students for reactivating the program, saying it offers students a good grade.
“This is one of the main chores of the university’s activities. When it is stopped, it does not reflect a healthy environment for the university, ” said Prof. Wani.
The administration urged the students not to limit their efforts to assist the population but rather to discover the most common ailments in the area, particularly endemic diseases.
“Like recently with the issue of fish, you need to identify (the disease) and you need to also identify the health needs of the people so that at the end of the day when you come back to the university, you will write a very comprehensive report that will reflect the state so that it will be included in the policy of the university and the policy of the state,” he said.
“So this trip looks simple, but it has a great impact on the nation,” Wani stressed.
The journey to Aweil is the second after a trip to Kwajok a few years ago, according to Dr Thomas Madit Timothy, the head of community medicine and dean of the college of medicine of Western Bahr el-Ghazal University.
He said the field excursions to various parts of the country where communities are located are a regular occurrence for college of medicine students so that they can become acquainted with the community environment.
“That is why they have to go to different parts; they are acquainted with various factors related to this theology and disease care,” Dr Madit said.
Paul Mayon Ariik, a representative of the fifth-year students at the College of Medicine, told reporters in Wau that the trip was organised in honour of their late professor, Dr Paul Mayan Lino, an ophthalmologist, under the theme of quality health services for a better life.
The trip comprised 34 students, three medical doctors, the dean of the college, and three more medical professionals in Aweil who were supposed to facilitate their field visit.
Mayon stated that they are expected to provide health services to the communities in Aweil, including consultation and the distribution of medicine to people who have tested positive for various common diseases, including tropical diseases.
“We have all types of medicine, and we are going to target the most affected people, those who have no access to health facilities.” We will go deep in the area and set up a mobile clinic, and we will spend one day in each area,” Mayon said.
However, he said he hopes the communities will benefit from their trip as well as for the students to identify specific diseases in the area through their research.
