After much planning and preparation, EWH has begun training biomedical equipment technicians in Ethiopia!

The first session hosts a mix of 11 instructors and 19 biomedical technicians from Addis Ababa and the surrounding region. Over the next couple months, these students will learn healthcare technology management, basic electronics and biomedical equipment skills, troubleshooting, and clinical work. This training will lay the foundation for more advanced understanding of medical equipment maintenance and repair.

Larry Wright assisting students in lab

Our instructors so far for first session have included Libby Mills, a longtime manager of healthcare technology, Gunalan Dass, who previously mentored EWH’s BMET students in Cambodia, and Larry Wright, who has taught EWH’s BMET students many times in the past.

Regarding obstacles in getting the training started, Libby, who is the Country Coordinator in Ethiopia, writes, “During our initial training, the government was doing controlled black outs and frequently the school was without power for hours if not for the entire day. To manage this and ensure training continued, we purchased a small generator. It provides enough power to continue to lecture with PowerPoint presentations, as well as for the students to do their hands-on electronics training and apply the theories they have just learned.”

EWH is also mentoring students to ensure each student receives the support they need and no one falls behind in the program. To provide the most well-rounded and in-depth training possible, the class will spend the last two weeks of February doing site visits to facilities in Addis Ababa where current students work. Group training in a hospital setting provides students with hands-on experience outside a lab while still receiving assistance from experts in the field. Students grow more confident in their ability to make a positive impact on their hospitals.

In the second session, EWH will begin training the instructors to become future trainers so that they can independently sustain the program!