The four, one from Pakistan, one from Kenya and two from Tanzania have won places on a Commonwealth Professional Fellowship scheme run by the Anglican Alliance in the UK in April and May next year.
John Wabike, the health co-ordinator of the West Tanganyika Diocese, and Rajabu Omary, the medical superintendant of Augustine Muheza Designated District Hospital in Tanga Diocese are the two Tanzanians who won places on the scheme. They will be joined by Joseph Wangai, the health and gender programme co-ordinator of the Anglican Church of Kenya, and Khurram Naveed Gill, the administrator of the hospital run by the Diocese of Hyderabad in Pakistan.
Their six week programme will include a week’s residential course at the University of Northampton, as well as two weeks placements with public and independent health providers and a week of induction.
The scheme is funded by the UK Government through the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. The scheme provides in work placements for professionals who are part way through their career. It’s a competitive process: the Commission has to approve both the scheme and the fellows nominated to participate. The Commission covers the travel costs of the fellows to the UK and provides a modest stipend to cover living costs.
A key factor in the selection is the commitment of the fellows to implement the lessons learned when they return home.
This is the second such scheme run by the Anglican Alliance. This year it ran one for education administrators. For the Alliance it is a key part of capacity-building, providing people running core development services an opportunity to look at other models of service provision, and learn from fellow professionals elsewhere in the Communion.