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Yemen --
Health, Education, and Economy
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As a budding young scientist,
this boy is
thrilled to be looking at his magnified hand! |
Training and Equipping Science Teachers (TEST) As a science major, Emad's demanding coursework includes three years of Biology, three years of Chemistry, and three years of Physics. At his rural high school in the rugged northern mountains of Yemen, Emad studies hard memorizing the notes that his teacher Mr. Ali writes on the blackboard, but he knows this is not enough. Emad needs to work out his knowledge of science; he needs to conduct laboratory experiments.
Emad's high school has a lab room and boxes full of science equipment. His student lab workbook contains many hands-on experiments. But there is no one to lead the students in these activities. The missing component is teacher training. Though Mr. Ali works diligently giving the students the knowledge they need, he has never done experiments himself, let alone taught a lab class.
To meet this growing need among bright high schoolstudents in Yemen, Millennium developed the TEST project. Through this project a science education specialist will be sent to train Mr. Ali and other science teachers in their own schools and equip them with the remaining lab supplies which they need. During a series of hands-on workshops throughout the year, teachers learn how to set up laboratory equipment and lead their classroom science experiments.
As the TEST project trains and equips science teachers, Emad and students in many other mountain villages are excited to be conducting science experiments for the first time. As they test their knowledge they are discovering new ways of thinking, learning and investigating the world around them.
You can help Yemeni high school science students. Click Donate Now and designate ‘Yemen – TEST'. |
Science teachers are eager to be able
to open new doors
for their students
through laboratory experimentation
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Healthcare for Street Sweeper
Families to expand. The success of this initial
project (details below) and the tremendous need of the
poor for accessible healthcare has led to the expansion
of these healthcare services. Our services will be
available to people in a second suburb in the capital
city of Sana’a. Additionally, we are looking at an
opportunity to open a third healthcare project for
street sweepers in yet another city, beginning in 2008.
Once again the primary aim is on
preventative health care and hygiene. We focus on
teaching the front line caregivers, mothers and
grandmothers, basic first aid and hygiene. We show
them how to recognize potentially hazardous situations
and symptoms, in an effort to stop infections and
diseases before they occur. Millennium is taking on an
extra consultant to manage these expansions. To read
more about this project, see the Touching the
Untouchables article in
Newsletters: Second Quarter 2005
If you can help us ensure a
healthier life for families in Yemen click on
Donate Now
and designate Yemen - Community Health.
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Healthcare for street sweeper families.
Millennium has enlisted the help of the British Embassy, the Sana’a
Ministry of Health, and a Street Sweeper Association to begin a three
year health project in a shantytown in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen. The
6,000 individuals who live in this tightly packed area have extremely
limited access to healthcare.
Millennium and its partners opened a small clinic and pharmacy right in
the center of the slum. Local doctors staff the clinic, while MRDS
medical and community development specialists have trained and equipped
community health workers to be the front line of health care in the
shantytown.
Long-term sustainability of the project is being implemented. The
government has agreed to employ a doctor and pharmacist and to donate
essential medicines. The Street Sweeper Association will continue paying
the clinic and pharmacy rent as well as the salaries of the village
health workers. Rooftop container gardens are being planted to provide a
sustainable supply of vegetables for the many families with malnourished
children. To read more about this worthwhile project click on
Newsletters: Second
Quarter 2005
Emergency Assistance for Strained Emergency Rooms.
Hospital services are unavailable in many areas of Yemen. In the
capital city of Sana’a, the facilities that do exist are extremely busy
and the medical teams are stretched. The hospitals lack necessary drugs
as well as basic equipment such as clean needles, syringes and gloves,
causing obvious frustration for patients and staff alike.
As in any typical emergency room situation, patients must wait a long
time to be seen. But here, once diagnosed, they are immediately sent out
to buy their own drugs, dressings and equipment from shops in the
neighborhood around the hospital. This not only delays the emergency
care, but many patients cannot afford the supplies and simply do not
return. Their wounds and illnesses remain untreated.
Millennium is helping to provide essential drugs, equipment and training
to the ER in one of the largest hospitals in the center of Sana’a. The
Republican Hospital serves a large population of the very poor. For most
patients they provide these services at much needed discounts. The
hardworking staff and the strained facilities are in urgent need of
practical support.
Contract with Sana'a University.
Millennium Relief & Development
Services has signed a contract with the Sana'a University in Sana'a,
the capital of Yemen, to bolster the school's educational programs.
Components of the program include
a Visiting Expert Program (VEP) to bring in university professors and
professionals for short-term lecture assignments; research opportunities
for post-graduate students; short-term conversational English instruction
and curriculum development. MRDS-Yemen also will assist in gathering
books, technical journals and equipment to improve the university's
libraries. For information, contact Millennium at millennium@mrds.org.
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The MASTERY Project (Mathematics and Science Teacher Education
Reform in Yemen). This project concentrates on
curriculum reform for secondary Mathematics and Science teacher
education programs. MRDS is an implementing partner, along with lead
partner Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The project is funded by the
Nuffic (Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in
Higher Education) NPT program for institutional strengthening.
Professors from Sanaa, Thamar, and Al-Hodeidah Universities are
working together with Millennium staff, the Ministry of Education,
and curriculum reform experts from Holland to upgrade science
teacher training from the ground up. Yemeni staff have written
comprehensive standards for graduate teachers in both content and
cross-cutting pedagogical issues such as methodology, use of ICT in
education, assessment, gender, etc.
Current activities include program review and pilot innovations in
teaching and learning in both Science and Education faculties. An
equipment component is intended to meet the demands of the new
curriculum for upgraded teaching aids and laboratory equipment.
For more information contact us at
millennium@mrds.org
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