First Days in Namibia

IEP Namibia 2012 Team

Dr. Bruce Lehnert - 8th IEP mission veteran

Dr. Meir Nyska - 4th IEP mission veteran

Dr. Beny Kish- 1st IEP mission

Jennifer Lehnert, RN

Monday, June 11

Our flight from Frankfurt was cancelled and we had to wait 8 hours for another flight to Namibia. We arrived at 8 p.m. local time on Monday.

Tuesday, June 12

The medical school had an exam schedule change, so we were unable to have the medical seminar. Instead, we toured the medical school and met with the dean.

Namibia's first medical school is brand new and has yet to graduate its first class. The facilities were very modern with state-of-the-art training equipment.

The medical school is 66% female and trains students to be skilled in medicine as well as the administration of healthcare. They expect graduates to run healthcare districts, including managing the funds used to run the district. Plans were made to bring University of Namibia medical students abroad for medical training.

We also had a meeting at the Ministry of Health to plan for the first day of seeing patients on Wednesday June 13th. We were told there would be no shortage of patients as specialists are a rarity in Namibia.

We will conduct the screenings at the 700-bed Katutura Hospital in Windhoek. June 14th and 15th are scheduled for surgery with access to two operating rooms.

Tonight there is a media kickoff with our sponsor, United Africa Group. There, Dr. Lehnert will meet with reporters from NBC, the Namibian Broadcast Corporation.

All in all, we have been well received by the Namibians. United Africa Group's star employee, Mutindi, has been absolutely wonderful in planning and organizing this mission.