A symposium on ‘Health in Africa 2010’ is being held today at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, in conjunction with the Pears Foundation (UK).

The symposium brings together health and policy experts from Israel and Africa to discuss critical issues impacting health in Africa today.

Seventeen alumni of the Pears International Masters in Public Health program (IMPH) who went on to work as public health practitioners across Africa are presenting their work at the symposium.

They include a water and sanitation capacity building manager with the Kenya Red Cross Society; the head of monitoring and evaluation of the National Malaria Control Program for the Ministry of Health in Nigeria; the regional head of the Expanded Program on Immunization in Cameroon; a training advisor for the EngenderHealth reproductive health organization in Ethiopia; an advisor to the WHO Africa Regional office in the Congo; and others working to combat HIV and AIDS, Malaria and TB in Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda.

IMPH program director Dr. Yehuda Neumark says, “Our graduates take up key positions as public health leaders and teachers and make important contributions to the health of the people in their countries and beyond.”