Monitoring and Evaluation workshop in Dhulikel, Nepal
In early March Interburns brought together team members from Nepal, UK, Bangladesh and Ghana for a innovative workshop in Dhulikhel, an hour outside Kathmandu. The workshop focused on training local teams from Bangladesh, Nepal and Ghana in how to use the new M and E tools developed by Interburns to assess and improve burn services. These tools will be used in 15 hospitals treating burns across Bangladesh and Nepal as well as a smaller pilot in Ghana.
The workshop was also a valuable team-building exercise that brought together nurses, doctors, surgeons and non-medical personnel from a number of different regions and countries. This was a highly enjoyable and inspirational workshop and everyone left with a strong feeling of being part of a wider international team and family, dedicated to improving the quality of burn care in their countries. The meeting also helped Interburns make important adjustments to the tools based on the recommendations of participants, to ensure they can be as useful as possible in the local context.
The workshop was led by Kamal Phuyal, a participatory monitoring and evaluation specialist from Nepal. Kamal made sure that the workshop was highly interactive with participants dancing, singing and playing a variety of roles to help them understand the different perspectives of doctors, nurses, burn patients, their families, and policy-makers and politicians. Our work is ultimately dependent upon the staff in these countries and the aim of the workshop was to provide these teams with the tools and training they need to improve burn care in their own country.
Our Nepali colleagues came from as far away as Nepalgunj in the far west, Janakpur in the south and Tansen in Palpa District in the western hills. Five team members from Bangladesh represented Acid Survivors Foundation and the National Institute for Burns and Plastic Surgery at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the largest burn unit in Asia. The team was also joined by Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah from Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana, who brought a fresh perspective and his own singular humour to the meeting. We were also joined on the final day by participants from Burns Violence Survivors Nepal, who participated in the action planning session for Nepal.
Interburns would like to thank all participants and especially Kamal Phuyal for organising and facilitating the event. We would also like to offer our thanks to the following organisations:
Nepal Burn Society, our local partners in Nepal, in particular Dr R.P. Chaudhary and Banshi Chaudhary for their help and support.
Acid Survivors Foundation, our partners from Bangladesh.
The UK Department for International Development (DFID) for funding this project to improve burn services in Bangladesh and Nepal.