Project Components

The EFFO-COE includes two main components:

Component 1: Construction of a High-Level Isolation Unit (HLIU) with Training Facilities

• The Center Of Excellence (COE) will provide infrastructure for high–level treatment of patients affected by HCID (e.g., EVD), with a total capacity of 10 beds, in separate individual rooms with airlocks/anterooms, including intensive care level cardiovascular monitoring and invasive ventilation.
• It will be a facility for Health Care Workers (HCWs) to be trained as multipliers (“training-of-trainers”) and a place for continuous training for HCWs employed at the COE.
• A Construction Needs Assessment (CNA) was completed during the first half of 2022 to identify the construction requirements and establish a conceptual design for the buildings. The construction needs assessment comprised exploratory talks with partners in Rwanda, a workshop in Kigali and the establishment of a functional workflow. In April 2022, four high-level experts from the Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) visited three STAKOB high-level isolation units in Germany to appreciate the layout/requirements of HLIU’s in Germany. At the time of writing, the construction layout has been established and approved with further construction planning activities underway.

Construction site of the Center of Excellence, located at the Masaka District Hospital in Kigali (© EFFO)

Component 2: Development and implementation of the COE-training curricula and program

• During the first half of 2022, a training needs assessment was conducted, which included amongst others clinical observations of intensive care units in Kigali, stakeholder interviews with public health authorities as well as a Knowledge, Attitude & Practices (KAP) survey amongst intensive care staff in Kigali, Rwanda.
• In November 2022, a joined workshop with Rwandan and German project partners was conducted. Using a participatory approach, the topics addressed included: identification of target groups, main training needs, potential training partners and sustainable operational and institutional aspects of the future COE. Facilitated discussions also provided a common understanding of how the COE would operate and be integrated in the current Rwandan academic context. As part of the outcome of the workshop different training curriculum working groups were formed.
• As part of the training strategy, a concept for a STAKOB Treatment Center internship (high-level isolation unit in Germany) will be established. Furthermore, a parallel PHD/Dr. med. track is envisioned.

Training programmes include topics such as general hygiene measures, Ebola Virus Disease, community response and Personal Protective Equipment (© EFFO)

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