The Health Education Enhancement Initiative
The Health Education Enhancement Initiative is a conglomeration of projects aimed at improving health through education and research in Ghana. The primary approach is to impact the educational experience of health-care workers in training while simultaneously creating a more amicable atmosphere for research that is conducive for information and knowledge sharing.
The initial project was a book drive campaign across university campuses within the United States that collected textbooks in medicine, nursing, psychology and public health, and shipped them to Ghana. However, we soon realized that although periodically harnessing books that would otherwise be discarded and sending them to places where they would be used was a noble idea and reduces the quantity of global waste generated, donated books quickly become obsolete in a matter of years because newer editions are produced at an even more rapid rate. These challenges prompted us to reconsider our goal for HEEI and to re-strategize. While we are still targeting the original book drive project for completion, the HEEI now focuses more on sustainable approaches to achieving its aims.
Medical Library, Korle-bu Teaching Hospital (Image courtesy of UC Berkeley)
Given the rapidly changing digital landscape and subsequent openness afforded by the internet, our current main project involves building a webportal that catalogs open access journals where students, researchers and faculty can easily find and retrieve vital research information. This portal will be a space where high quality publications by research faculty in Ghana can be made accessible to the world, and where students in Ghana can connect with world-class research mentors and with their peers in universities in the diaspora. We are trying to build a library that utilizes information technology networking to make access to resources and information more open to students at particular schools in Ghana who would otherwise have troubling locating as many open access journals as possible. The HEEI thus plans to make the latest health information available via e-books and e-journals to students in Ghana. This way, students in Ghana enjoy the privilege of access to high quality teaching and mentoring by leaders in health research half way across the world.
Your participation, especially as a mentor or peer is crucial to HEEI's success. Get involved; send us your thoughts, volunteer your services, skills and time. Donate towards the project. Encourage others to donate towards the project. Join this effort to improve healthcare through education and research in Ghana.
For more information about the HEEI project, please send an email to info@reachghana.org
