July 25th – 27th 2016, OHCEA Tanzania organized grant writing worked in Dar es Salaam. The workshop was conducted at the Giraffe Hotel in Dar es Salaam. The purpose of the workshop was to provide grant writing skills to key health professionals and practitioners who are faculty to MUHAS and SUA universities, and who are directly or indirectly involved with research on humans, animals (including wildlife) or both humans and animals as well as the environment in which they live and interact.
The workshop aimed to equip the faculty with the concepts and practical skills on proposal writing to seek funding for research projects of their own. The workshop invited 20 faculty with about half of them coming from the human health side and the other half from the animal side. The workshop was funded by the USAID through the One Health Workforce project.
The workshop was open to mid-level faculty from Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) and Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) involved in One Health activities or are interested in developing research proposal in the area of One Health.
Professor Philemon Wambura, the OHCEA Board Chairman, informed the participants that OHCEA is currently doing away with trainings that does not have tangible outputs. He further elaborated that OHCEA will be supporting training as a process towards achieving specific products like fundable research proposals. With the current main OHCEA funding (USAID-OHW) coming to an end by 2020, Dr Wambura challenged participants from member institutions to devote their efforts to respond to this challenge.
Prof. Saul Tzipori from Tufts University told participants that completion in granting is stiff and one needs to prepare proposals that can compete. He gave hints on issues to consider when responding to calls for proposals to increase the chances of a proposal being funded.
By the end of the training, four proposal ideas were developed and sketched around the following areas;
- Influence of human activities on the evolution and spread of Antimicrobial Resistance within and between humans, animals and environment compartments by Gaymary Bakari, Ezekiel Mangi, Faith Mabiki, Julius John and Huruma N. Tuntufye
- Integrated hospital and community based strategies for controlling diarhoeal diseases among pastoralist communities in Kilosa district, Tanzania by Heribert R. Kaijage, Mangi J. Ezekiel, Hussein Mwanga, Hezron Nonga, Huruma Tuntufye and Idda Mosha
- Reduction of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Transmission Through Promoting Awareness among Traditional Health Practitioners byFaith PM, Mourice NM, Idda M, Gaymary GB, Mdegela RH, Tuntufye H.
- Prevalence, knowledge and risk perception of zoonotic diseases in Kilosa district by Marycelina Mubi, Anna Tengia-Kessy, Helena Ngowi, Idda Mosha
Workshop participants and facilitators pose for a group photo at Giraffe Oceanic View Hotel