ESTHER Switzerland
Network for the promotion
of Institutional Health
Partnerships

Sharing data and protecting privacy in low- and middle-income countries

A partnership building on health research data from Malawi

“Switzerland doesn’t have a system for sharing open data in the health sciences,” says statistician Matthias Templ of the Zürich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). “It’s basically not practiced here, but it’s done by researchers in Malawi. And I think we can learn from them.”

Sharing and protecting data has become a hot topic for individuals, businesses, NGOs, companies, and countries around the world.

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Adapting an ESTHER partnership in response to COVID-19

A Swiss-Malagasy partnership

In February 2020, just as the Coronavirus disease was setting out on its trip around the world, representatives of Geneva University Hospital (HUG) and Ambanja Referral District Hospital in Madagascar were finishing their application for a CHF 99,677 partnership grant from ESTHER Switzerland. In a section on Risks and Mitigation, applicants were asked to list the probability of «natural disasters or the outbreak of epidemics which could delay the implementation of activities».

«We never thought about an outbreak,» says Project Leader Caroline Benski of HUG. «It was absolutely not on our minds.»

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New online community platform: Pulse!

Our ESTHER Alliance partner in the UK, the Tropical Health & Education Trust (THET) is pleased to announce the launch of Pulse, an initiative which creates an online space for health partnerships to connect, create and collaborate with one another. Pulse will enable the sharing of learning, project development and furthering a sense of community amongst Health Partnerships and volunteers. Pulse helps to create a world where health workers are empowered to grow and lead health systems strengthening worldwide. Our community supports, protects, motivates and equips the global health workforce to deliver quality health care. To join the platform today please click here.

How many Swiss hospitals are engaged with hospitals and clinics in low- and middle-income countries?

ESTHER launches survey of Swiss health partnerships to find out

Switzerland has a strong tradition of international engagement in health care, surely best known through the work of Henri Dunant and the founding of the Red Cross (now International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement). However, this tradition is also supported through innumerable smaller projects made possible by the activities of individual health care professionals working at Swiss hospitals who are engaged with hospitals and clinics in poorer countries.

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The thread that led to a beautiful friendship

A Swiss–Uzbek partnership

It all began with an e-mail that no one answered. Olimjon Saidmamatov, an Uzbek economist attending an energy conference in St. Gallen, learned that ESTHER offers grants for Institutional Health Partnerships between Switzerland and low- and middle-income countries. He came from a family of doctors and was interested in helping to close the gap between Uzbek and Swiss medicine. Saidmamatov sent an email to more than 100 doctors in Switzerland, looking for a collaborator.

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Fighting childhood malnutrition
How to build on past experiences

A Swiss-Tanzanian partnership

Improving child survival in Tanzania is the goal of Maja Weisser, an infectious diseases specialist from Basel, Switzerland, and Getrud Mollel, a global health professional from Kilombero, Tanzania. The recipients of a 99,862 franc ESTHER grant to improve screening for childhood malnutrition in Tanzania talk about the benefits of their north-south partnership.

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