The handover ceremony of $500,000 grant from the Chinese government to the NEPAD Secretariat has been held at NEPAD Secretariat headquarters in Midrand on 26 July 2006. The money will be used to support the Post-Graduate Training Program of African Nurses and Midwives envisaged to be launched in Tanzania and Kenya very soon. H.E. Mr. Liu Guijin, Chinese Ambassador to South Africa on behalf of the Chinese government, has handed a cheque to Prof. Firmino Mucavele, CEO of NEPAD Secretariat. They also signed Certificate of Handover and Acceptance at the ceremony.

Prof. Mucavele appreciated greatly the generous offer of the Chinese government, regarding it as a continuation of China's steadfast support of Africa's national liberation struggles against colonialism and apartheid, which could be dated back to early 1950s. It is this spirit of friendship, cooperation and solidarity that forges the strategic partnership between China and Africa. China not only views Africa as a continent with abundant resources and a market of huge potential, but has also made a great deal of investment into the African human resources development, institutional capacity-building, which contributes a lot to the social and economic development of Africa. The African countries are keen to further develop this strong relationship with China to the benefit of the two peoples.

       

Ambassador Liu recalled the recent visit by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to South Africa, during which occasion he had announced the grant of $ 500,000 from the Chinese government to support NEPAD Nurses and Midwives Training Program. He pointed out that the handover ceremony was in fact a follow-up action of Premier Wen's visit and it marked the first step of tangible cooperation between China and NEPAD. Prof. Mucavele has recently taken a study tour to China and signed a MOU of Strengthening Consultation and Cooperation between NEPAD Secretariat and Secretariat of the Chinese Follow-up Action Committee of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Ambassador Liu said he was deeply convinced that with the convening of the 1st FOCAC Summit in Beijing this November, the Chinese side will make even more important commitments to Africa, adding more substances to the new type of strategic partnership between China and Africa.

The NEPAD Nurses and Midwives Post-Graduate Training Program is a pilot project of training of the trainers. It is envisaged to open 3-year post-graduate training courses at 5 universities in Tanzania and Kenya, which have already established graduate training courses of nurses and midwives. A total number of 50 nurses and midwives with master degrees will be trained at the first stage. After their graduation in 2008, the best students among them will be employed as teachers at the respective universities, giving lessons by themselves and gradually streamlining the post-graduate training program. The pilot project is bliss for African nurses and midwives, since they don't have to go to western countries to carry on further studies.

And it will therefore effectively prevent the brain drain of the qualified African medical staffs, which are so vital to the social and economic development of Africa.