28.04.2008
Theresa Madubuko from Nigeria: "The course has opened my mind"
After working in the healthcare sector for about eight years, Theresa Madubuko is now studying International Health in Heidelberg. (Copyright: bw-i)
To make a difference – that is Ms. Madubuko’s motivation for continuing her studies after having worked for about eight years in the healthcare sector. Last year, she temporarily left her job as a resident in community medicine at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Enugu, said goodbye to her family and took a chance she now would not have wanted to miss. “At first, an important impulse was to learn German,” the health expert recalls. But since the classes of the one-year master program in International Health in Heidelberg are very intense and in English she has to be satisfied with the German she learns “on the street”. 20 experienced professionals working in healthcare from all over the world, especially from Africa, Asia, South America and Europe, have come together for a packed lecture and seminar program in order to broaden their knowledge in fields like epidemiology and health management, but also in soft skills like communication, interdisciplinary teamwork and so on.
Theresa Madubuko has worked in the field of healthcare, focusing on community medicine, and she has experienced Europe during her time at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, yet the stay in Heidelberg is an essential additional step in her career: ”The course has opened my mind, given me confidence and enabled me to discover new interests and talents,” Ms. Madubuko believes.
The focus of Heidelberg’s International Health Program lies on poverty-related health problems in low and middle income countries. According to the course’s website, the Master of Science course in International Health was developed with the aim of providing students with a solid foundation in international public health principles and competence in using tools and methods “necessary to initiate and run programs that improve health of poor populations in an efficient, sustainable and equitable way.“ The program can be completed in a full-time, one-year residential track, with a fixed set of core and advanced modules taken at Heidelberg. Theresa Madubuko chose this option because she was awarded a DAAD scholarship and wanted to be away from Nigeria for the shortest time possible. For other students, the second option might be more convenient and affordable, since the course is subject to tuition: to study from one to five years in the European track, allowing for part-time studies and an individual choice of advanced modules offered within the track’s network.
More:
http://www.uni-heidelberg.de
