Dr. Marc Yambayamba Kapenga – DRC AFROHUN Country Manager
While literally all universities and other education institutions were locked down to all forms of teaching and learning, in the region, AFROHUN country teams innovated around how to keep students engaged and active. June 2020, the DRC Country team engaged students in the country via a virtual meeting.This meeting had two main objectives; 1) Experience-sharing and the role and use of One Health in the response to COVID-19 and, 2) Introduce the One Health Workforce – Next Generation project to the Students’ One Health Innovations Club (SOHIC) leadership and alumni.
Although a number of the students could not attend because of issues of internet connection, we had a good turn-up all the same. It was attended by 14 alumni and 26 students. We hope that for the upcoming engagements, those that attended this meeting, will mobilize their colleagues.
Those engaged in the response activities shared their experience with students on how they use the One Health core competencies in their activities.
In general, the discussion was good; first because it was an opportunity for students and alumni to meet since the start of COVID-19 in DRC, in March 2020. As universities are closed, it has been a while. Secondly, they learned from one another about One Health and COVID-19 response activities. they went ahead and proposed One Health activities to implement during COVID-19 outbreak.
One of the emerging issues from the meeting is the absence of a communication channel for information sharing between students and alumni to inform each other of their activities and the lack of a mentorship network to help early career professionals.
Those in attendance resolved to regularly have these meetings to allow information sharing. And hope we’ll have an opportunity to create a phone application to connect our students and alumni.