ALBINO Bobogare, Director of the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, led a delegation to the Malaria Reference Group Meeting in Brisbane at the beginning of this month.
The Malaria Reference Group is a high-powered group of international experts in the battle against malaria.
It is chaired by Sir Richard Feachem who is head of the Global Health Group, part of the University of San Francisco.
Sir Richard was formerly the founding Director of the Global Fund against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The Malaria Reference Group consists of experts in the control and elimination of malaria from all over the world.
The meeting, hosted by AusAID, included representatives from the World Health Organisation, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, and a number of malaria experts who are supporting the malaria campaign in Solomon Islands.
A similar malaria programme is taking place in Vanuatu and the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the progress of both the Solomon’s and Vanuatu programme’s, and whilst all the experts were in attendance, to seek any advice that they can offer.
Mr Bobogare said that “these meetings are a great opportunity to discuss with the world experts the real and practical challenges we experience when delivering malaria control and elimination in the field”.
“We always come away with new ideas and increased motivation, but we also hope that in exchange we provide the experts with the realities of our experience in the field.
“It really is a two-way learning process and we are very fortunate to have this facility to assist our National Malaria Programme.
“It’s also a great opportunity to share our experiences with our colleagues from Vanuatu who are undertaking similar work”
Mr Bobogare continued by saying that he was able to report some great successes at the meeting, however we still have great challenges ahead of us, which are shared by many countries around the world.
““Its true to life” he said “you have your ups and downs but we have a great team who are working really hard and are very committed to meeting the challenges and achieving our goals”.
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