29 November 2007

Students take on 47-mile trek for Malawi

Photo opportunity: 9.30 am, Saturday December 1st.
North side, Tay Road Bridge (beside lift)

Medical students at the University of Dundee will spend World Aids Day (Saturday December 1st) on a 47-mile relay walk to raise funds and awareness of programmes in Malawi, one of the countries worst affected by HIV and Aids.

The Dundee students will be joined on their trek by two medical students from Malawi who are currently studying in Dundee as part of an exchange programme. The students will be dressed in red, green and black - the colours of the Malawian flag.

Medical students and staff from the University of Dundee have established a new programme of "Medicine In Malawi Placements" which will see them contribute to frontline medical care in the African country. From July 2008, fifth-year medical students from Dundee will be working in Kamuzu Central Hospital in the Malawian capital Lilongwe on a four-monthly rotating basis.

"We are in the middle of fundraising for the placement programme in Malawi so we felt World Aids Day was an appropriate time to hold our walk, as the disease has had a devastating impact upon Malawi," said Rebecca Baird, one of the medical students involved in the project.

"The 47-mile figure is also hugely symbolic as life expectancy in Malawi is only 47 years for men and 46 for women."

The students will gather at the north side of the Tay Road Bridge on Saturday at 9.30 am. They will then walk to Tentsmuir Beach and back, a journey of roughly 10 miles. The students are doing the walk in teams of five, so the total distance travelled for each team will be approximately 47 miles.

All money raised will be directly spent by Dundee medical students between July 2008 - March 2009 to fund any initiative that will improve patient healthcare at Kamuzu Central Hospital, Lilongwe in Malawi

The aim of the Medicine In Malawi Placements is to enable students to make a meaningful contribution to local healthcare provision in Malawi. In addition to working on their own ward, students will also have the opportunity to do research, audits, and to work on mini projects with international health organizations and at local outreach clinics.

The new programme was the idea of staff at the Tayside Centre for General Practice and is being developed with the first group of students to benefit from this opportunity as they now move into their fourth year at Dundee Medical School.

The partner institutions in the project are the University of Dundee Medical School, Kamuzu Central Hospital, and University of Malawi College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi. The project is a member of the Scotland Malawi Partnership.

The pilot phase of the project is being supported through three-year grants from the Scottish Executive International Development Fund and NHS Education for Scotland, although students and staff at Dundee are embarking on fundraising for specific projects.

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk