Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) will
join Chinese health authorities to build a national training center
for China's public health and disease control professionals.
The center will offer courses and distance learning to thousands
of public health workers and experts.
John Howe, the president and CEO of Project HOPE, an
international health education and humanitarian assistance
organization, that has served China since 1983, said the experience
HOPE learned from its worldwide health education programs would be
useful for China.
Project HOPE's goal in China is to make people in both rural and
urban areas enjoy better health education and medical services,
Howe said.
Howe and the members of HOPE's Board of Directors discussed the
training center this weekend in Beijing with Ministry of Health and
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) leaders, including
Vice Minister of Health Wang Longde.
The training center is expected to function next year as a part
of CDC.
Health education among the general public of China, especially
people in rural areas, is not advanced and needs an urgent boost
from more educated health workers, said Mao Qun'an, spokesman of
the ministry.
Founded in 1958, Project HOPE is dedicated to providing lasting
solutions to health problems. Its mission is to train professionals
to provide people with the tools to be able to help themselves.
HOPE has carried out many national health education programs in
China, ranging from diabetes to heart disease, and has reached
nearly 300,000 doctors throughout the Chinese mainland.
Since 2001 when Howe was appointed as the CEO of HOPE, he has
been to China several times.
He said that Chinese people are very caring people, and he feels
good that his work can make a difference in people's lives
here.
(China Daily April 3, 2006)