Global Health is a growing field in public health and medical schools in high income countries and also predicted to be growing soon in low and middle countries. Dr. Jibril undertook his undergraduate medical studies at Amoud University and global health at Institute of Global Health at Heidelberg University in Germany.
At Amoud University he introduced courses in global health at Amoud College of Health Sciences (AUCHS) which runs undergraduate programmes and further introduced postgraduate programmes at Amoud Univeristy School of Postgraduate Studies and Research (AUSPGSR). The goal of Dr Handuleh was to lay down the foundation for global health teaching and research capacity at Amoud University from scratch. He recruited resources at university, regional and international levels towards achieving this goal. This is his story.
First course he introduced was on global mental health module for undergraduate public health trainees. The aim was to embed this into the introductory global health course for the students. This course had been in operation since 2018.
In 2019, global mental health chapter was integrated into undergraduate psychiatry course at Amoud University as an introduction linking practicing medicine, psychiatry and understanding how global mental health was part of psychiatry undergraduate training. The department added one-week long talks and group discussions in global mental health as part of enrichment to its curriculum. In the undergraduate course Dr. Daniel Fekadu of King’s College London, Dr. Victor Pereira-Sanchez of New York University and Dr. Sanya Virani from Yale Medical School were all invited as part of the team. There are plans to have two (2) additional faculties from East London NHS Trust next academic year in the 2021/2022 class. This course is the first of its kind in Africa to integrate global health into undergraduate psychiatry training in the curriculum.
In the 2021, the faculty of postgraduate program in public health set up an innovative online global health module for the online master of public health programme at Amoud University. In this course, we have truly international faculty co-teaching with Dr. Jibril. He is delivering the course with colleagues who have extensive global health interest and working experience which enrich the teaching experience. Faculty joining this course are Dr. Victor Periera-Sanchez, New York University Grossman School of Medicine and a post-doctoral fellow in global mental health at World Health Organization collaborating center at Columbia University in New York, USA, Dr. Sanya Virani, a public health clinician Yale Medical School, USA and Dr Becky Stout, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK and director of global health at East London NHS Trust in London, UK.
Amoud University is pioneering such interesting courses in collaboration with world class institutions from different countries. We also collaborate with One Health Horn project on research persisting research on one health. Dr Handuleh is leading this research project regarding Bovine Tuberculosis among cattle in Awdal region of Somaliland and the Sheikh Veterinary school is also partner in this work. One health horn project is a research grant linking institutions in Somaliland, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea and the Liverpool University of the UK Investigating prevalence and risk factors of Bovine Tuberculosis in cattle and agro-pastoral community in Awdal region, Somaliland.
He is also working with Liverpool University on study on the impact of Covid19 on mental health of Somali refugees in Puntland and Mogadishu in collaboration with Red Sea University of Kalkacayo, Somalia. This is tripartiate collaboration among Amoud University, Kalkacayo University and the University of Liverpool COVID19 and its Prevention in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) Camps In Somalia/Somaliland: Impact On Livelihoods, Mental Health and Well being.
At Amoud University, our faculty are also feeding into international public health and medical practice around the world including World Psychiatry Association. For instance, Amoud faculty member, Dr. Handuleh has joined the membership of the scientific committee of the annual World Psychiatry Association conference in October 2021 virtual congress. He is currently reviewing submissions and also working with many journals as a peer reviewer in addition to the active research work he is doing. The conference committee mentioned is here WORLD PYSYCHIATRY ASSOCIATION – 21st WPA WORLD CONGRESS OF PSYCHIATRY.
Dr. Jibril is very hopeful that some American and European global health centers are soon joining the foundations that as been laid for Amoud University as an international health collaborating center in Somaliland.
Selected Recent publications on global health