Thursday 30/11/2017
Today began with another teaching session. This time I was able to talk about developing a more advanced search strategy for finding health literature online. Gwyn gave another great lecture which again included lots of audience participation as he emphasised the key points he had made about eye care throughout the week. We have a register that we pass around to the students every morning for them to write down their names and home countries. It’s incredible to see how far many of the students have come from across Sub-Saharan Africa.
I had lots of enquiries about Hinari after the session and I was able to have a one to one session with Mr Mendy who is in charge of the educational programmes at SZRECC. Hopefully he will be able to cascade this information on to the students who continue to study at SZRECC in the future. Zainaba and I then went to visit the National Library in Banjul. We met the Director General, Matilda Johnson. She gave us a tour of the library and told us about an on going project to deliver children’s books to schools across The Gambia in rural communities. Matilda also informed me that there is a Gambian Librarians Association and I took their details to contact regarding potential training opportunities in the future.
Tonight we are having a meal with the rest of the team at SZRECC to thank them for their kind hospitality throughout the week. Tomorrow is a public holiday here so there is no activity in SZRECC. It will be a chance to say goodbye to the many good friends that we have made this week.