EWH awards scholarship to Cameroonian BMET student

EWH, with generous support from the GE Foundation, is providing scholarships to students in Africa, thus enabling the continuation of their biomedical equipment technician training. The first such scholarship recipient is Kelei Kelesi Stanley of Cameroon. Kelei is a BMET student at Valley View University in Ghana. He began his BMET studies last year, and with the help of the EWH scholarship he continued with the second session of his training course in May 2010. Upon receiving the funding, Kelei’s words were: “I write to express my gratitude about the scholarship given to me by EWH. Words alone cannot really say what is in my heart.” EWH hopes to fund similar scholarships for both African and Central American BMET students as they seek to continue their education through existing programs.

Trained biomedical equipment technicians offer an enormous benefit to the hospitals in the resource poor countries in which they live, work and seek their education. As much as 75% of the medical equipment currently in hospitals in these countries does not function optimally, if at all. Trained BMET’s have the skills necessary offer both preventive and curative maintenance for a hospital’s equipment. They can also gain knowledge about seeking out equipment resource manuals, spare parts and accessories, using locally available resources, and troubleshooting.

EWH is currently offering its first BMET program in Kigali, Rwanda. At present, there are 16 students enrolled. A second session is scheduled to begin in late September 2010 and it is projected that an additional 30 students will receive training before the end of 2012.