Who are we and what do we do?

HELP Namibia Foundation (hereinafter HELP) focuses on the promotion of (acute) health care in Namibia. Without making any distinction between gender, colour, race, religion, sexual orientation or political conviction. Essential is the transfer of knowledge. 

 

In order to achieve the above, the foundation travels to Namibia at least once a year to provide training. Currently, we focus on the following two training programmes:

1: Pre Hospital Care Practitioner (PHCP)

2: New Born Resucitation

3: Basic Pre Hospital Care Fire Department Omaheke region

The Pre Hospital Care Practitioner course is a five-day training of at least 28 hours both theoretical and practical. This course is concluded with a theoretical and practical exam. 

 The New Born course is a tailor-made course for the staff of the maternity wards and delivery departments of the hospitals.  The course consists of theory combined with practice and takes on average 2.5 hours. 

The Basic Pre Hospital Care Fire Department is developed specifically for the fire brigade, regularly they are the first to arrive at an accident and then have to act with the resources and knowledge they have. In Gobabis they have access to their own ambulance but not in the surrounding villages. This programme lasts two days and, like the courses above, is theoretical but mainly practical.

Mission, vision and strategy 

Mission 

The Health & Emergency care Learning Program (HELP) Namibia Foundation was established in 2006 after our employer Kijlstra Ambulance Group Fryslân donated an ambulance to Gobabis in Namibia. Gobabis is the sister town of Drachten. Bowe Bottinga and Jillard Faber took care of this introduction. During this visit it became clear that there was a great need for specific training after which they decided to return every year to provide training. 

 

HELP focuses on promoting (acute) health care in Namibia.   Without making a distinction between gender, colour, race, religion, sexual orientation or political conviction. Knowledge transfer is essential for this! 

We have already set up various training programmes. In recent years, we have given Basic Pre-Hospital Care lessons to firefighters, first aid lessons in the slums and various hospital trainings.

 

Namibia is situated in the south of Africa, near the border of South Africa. Namibia is twenty-two times as large as the Netherlands and only 2.1 million people live there.

The (acute) health care in Namibia is confronted with a number of specific problems: 

1: There is no or little specific pre-hospital trauma knowledge among current 

            Ambulance crews. 

2: Namibia ranks first in terms of road fatalities worldwide.  Accidents with 10 or more severely injured victims occur monthly. 

3: The enormous distances between hospitals present huge challenges to ambulance crews. 

4: Due to the lack of prenatal care and long distances, infant mortality around birth is high. 

 

 

 

Objective 

Improving (pre) hospital care 

 Reducing baby mortality around birth

In order to achieve this goal, we have written a teaching programme in cooperation with the doctors of the hospital in Gobabis, which is in line with the work situation in Namibia. 

Two of our courses are accredited by The Health Professions Councils of Namibia. 

- Pre-Hospital Care Practitioner, accredited since 2013

- New Born Resucitation, accredited since 2015

These courses are delivered to both registered nurses, enrolled nurses, midwifes, Emergency Care Practitioners (Basic & Intermediate), Emergency Care Technicians. 

HELP is open to provide (para)medical training to other target groups. This on the request of a foundation, board, municipality etc. residing in Namibia. Condition is that it fits the scope of practice of HELP. In the past, we have provided training to the fire brigade, first aid lessons at schools and in relief projects for children in the slums.  The board does not exclude the possibility of expanding the PHCP and New Born resuscitation lessons to several hospitals in Namibia. However, this will only happen after an explicit request from the hospitals. 

Strategy 

In order to achieve the above objective, HELP will travel to Namibia at least once a year to provide various training courses.  In order to keep the effectiveness as high as possible, the dates of the training are coordinated with the hospitals, so that we can teach in a continuous period. 

The day part is used to provide the PHCP course, after which the New Born resuscitation classes are given in the evening.

The size of the group will be determined by the number of trainers. Preference is given to three trainers at a time, our years of experience have shown this to be the most effective. The group of students is maximum fifteen. The students are assigned to the same trainers throughout the week. 

For the New Born course, the group consists of a maximum of nine students per evening (with three trainers). This course is offered four times a week. 

The teaching materials such as readers and practice phantoms are provided by HELP and are largely left behind in Namibia, so that training can also take place when we are not present. This material is managed by the PMO/ CMO of the hospital.

The hospital, where the lessons are given, is responsible for inviting the students, providing the classrooms and providing food and drinks during the lessons.  

 


Health & Emergency care Learning Program

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