Cooperative agreement no. OTR-0285-A-00-7124-00 with Project Hope Health Sciences Education Center

Activities will be country- and task-specific and will consist of education and training rather than the provision of direct health services. Efforts in both Belize and Haiti will focus on building laboratory capacity. Specifically, a public health laboratory with microbiological, water, and food testing capabilities will be developed in Belize. In Haiti, a laboratory will be developed at University Hospital in Port-au-Prince. In Costa Rica, Project Hope will establish a regional respiratory training center and develop respiratory therapy departments at selected institutions. Activities in Honduras will be in four areas. (1) Project Hope will train health professionals and para-professionals as part of a new Child Health Education Initiative. (2) The project will also establish biomedical equipment repair and maintenance centers at selected Ministry of Health and Social Security Institute sites and train technicians for these and other centers. (3) Laboratory-related efforts will include completing the faculty of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) Division of Parasitology, providing continuing education for rural/peri-urban laboratory technicians, and establishing a school for laboratory technicians. (4) An audiovisual resources production center will be developed within the UNAH and libraries will be developed for use in rural/peri-urban communities. Three separate nursing programs in Swaziland will: (1) improve the basic curriculum at the Nazarene Nursing College; (2) develop a one-year postgraduate community health nursing education program at the Swaziland Institute of Health Sciences; and (3) develop a training program in primary health care for nursing assistants at Good Shepherd Hospital. Additionally, a materials management program to establish a drug and medical supply system for the nation will be developed.