THE University of Zimbabwe (UZ) recently held the first graduation Zimbabwe Traditional Healers Association (Zinatha) members who completed a one-year certification program with the institution.
The graduation was presided over by Gene Morse, professor and associate director of the University at Buffalo’s New York State Centre of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, as well as Charles Maponga, a faculty member at UB and the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) and director of the UZ School of Pharmacy in the College of Health Sciences.
“This certificate program represents an important step in establishing a community network of practitioners and patients who will contribute to the clinical pharmacology and therapeutics implementation research that the AITRP mentors and fellows are trying to achieve as part of the Zimbabwean Evidence to Action (ETA) national project,” said Morse.
Individual awards were announced in in categories such as Best overall students (Brian Chatindo and Richard Mafuta both herbalists), outstanding projects (Friday Chisanyu and Tinashe Kureya), most inspiring traditional health practitioner (Mapati William) and most professional participating student (Jessy Kadyevhu).
The Traditional Healer Certificate program is offered by UZ School of Pharmacy in collaboration with the International Education and Research Initiative (IPERI) and recognizes the importance of indigenous knowledge systems in Zimbabwe.
IPERI was established by the UB-UZ AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP) to foster interactions between community initiatives such as patient support groups and traditional healers and the HIV clinical research and capacity-building program of the AITRP.
The programme is funded by the Fogarty International Centre at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and has a primary goal of increasing HIV clinical pharmacology research capacity at UZ through mentored training of UZ graduate students and faculty in HIV clinical pharmacology research methodology, laboratory sciences and applied therapeutics.
New Zimbabwe
The graduation was presided over by Gene Morse, professor and associate director of the University at Buffalo’s New York State Centre of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, as well as Charles Maponga, a faculty member at UB and the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) and director of the UZ School of Pharmacy in the College of Health Sciences.
“This certificate program represents an important step in establishing a community network of practitioners and patients who will contribute to the clinical pharmacology and therapeutics implementation research that the AITRP mentors and fellows are trying to achieve as part of the Zimbabwean Evidence to Action (ETA) national project,” said Morse.
Individual awards were announced in in categories such as Best overall students (Brian Chatindo and Richard Mafuta both herbalists), outstanding projects (Friday Chisanyu and Tinashe Kureya), most inspiring traditional health practitioner (Mapati William) and most professional participating student (Jessy Kadyevhu).
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| Certified ... Graduates and their families at the first graduation of Zimbabwe Traditional Healers following completion of a certificate program at the University of Zimbabwe |
IPERI was established by the UB-UZ AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP) to foster interactions between community initiatives such as patient support groups and traditional healers and the HIV clinical research and capacity-building program of the AITRP.
The programme is funded by the Fogarty International Centre at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and has a primary goal of increasing HIV clinical pharmacology research capacity at UZ through mentored training of UZ graduate students and faculty in HIV clinical pharmacology research methodology, laboratory sciences and applied therapeutics.
New Zimbabwe
