PHEMAP-7 Report
9 July 2007

 

ADPC’s 7th Inter-regional training course on Public Health and Emergency Management in Asia and the Pacific (PHEMAP- 7) concludes

18-29 June 2007, Bangkok

The PHEMAP Program is a partnership between WHO Regional Offices for South East Asia (SEARO) and Western Pacific (WPRO) and ADPC, and supported by the Royal Government of Norway.

The 7th Inter-regional training course on Public Health and Emergency Management in Asia and the Pacific concluded on the 29 June 2007. The two-week training course was conducted from 18-29 June 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand. The inter-regional course is specifically designed for people who play critical health emergency management and coordination roles in managing the health risks of emergencies. 31 participants from 13 different countries namely Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vanuatu, and Vietnam representing Ministries of Health, Red Cross and International Organization for Migration attended the course.

The closing ceremony was presided over by Dr. Luis Jorge Perez-Calderon, Deputy Executive Director, ADPC and Dr. Arturo Pesigan, Emergency and Humanitarian Action, WHO-WPRO. Dr. Adul Bandhukul-Participant Representative from Nopparat Rajathanee Hospital, Thailand and Mr. Jonas Arugogona Gavika, the Participant Representative from the Ministry of Health, Vanuatu gave the vote of thanks.

Some snapshots from PHEMAP 7:

Participants in an interactive session

 

Group work in progress

Participants in discussion with Dr. Macel Dubouloz

Representing agencies in a Health Cluster Coordination role-play

Dr A.R.M Sadullah, Assistant Director (Disaster), Directorate General Health Services (DGHS), Bangladesh receiving certificate from Dr. Luis Jorge Perez-Calderon, Deputy Executive Director, ADPC

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At the closing ceremony: Reproduced below is Dr. Adul Bandhukul’s vote of thanks

 

 

Dr. Adul Bandhukul, Director, Occupational & Environmental Medicine Center, Nopparat Rajathanee Hospital

Dear Organizers and all Participants

I am very honoured to be the representative of the WHO’s SEARO side to give the closing speech for our region.This is the last day of PHEMAP 7 (or the Interregional training on Public Health and Emergency Management in Asia and Pacific), which went from the 18th of June to the 29th of June. The last 12 days, during which we stayed and learned together, gave many meanings to our lives. I think all of us feel the same. We feel like we are younger and have just finished our university. We feel like the new man with the great enthusiasm to bring the knowledge to practice in our lives. Yes, we are not the same but much changed from the past two weeks ago. The doors are closed but God always opens another door for us.

Last night was a very wonderful night. We wished it were the start of the course and not the end. Finally we cannot cheat ourselves: it’s the end. It’s just the end of the course, but it will be the start of us practicing what we learned from PHEMAP 7, which is the knowledge from the instructors and the experience of our colleagues from SEARO and WPRO. The Emergency Management Plans that we presented yesterday and today will be activated and implemented tomorrow.

It is time to thank you for your wonderful course, to thank the Royal Government of Norway, WHO and ADPC for supporting us. Big thanks to ADPC, to Mr. Jonathan Abrahams for directing this marvellous course. Thanks to Dr. Rodger Doran, Dr.Malou Barrameda, Dr. Jerry Vincent, Dr. Sandra Tempongko, Dr. Marcel Dubouloz, Dr. Luis Jorge Perez Calderon, Dr. Cynthia Caron, Dr. Marcel Dubouloz, Dr. Guy Minet, Dr. Art Pesigan, Dr. Rajan Gengaje, Dr. Marc van der Putten, Dr. Stephen King and Mr. John Abo and to all the facilitators for putting the jigsaw of the 14 modules in this course into a very wonderful picture. Thanks to Ms. Janette Lauza-Ugsang for helping run this very smooth course, and to Nittaya too. Thanks to all our teachers for your patience, for sitting in the back and listening to us formulating our ideas and giving feedback with questions and suggestions which brought us to the most useful and practical answers. Thanks for your patience in listening to our English – though it’s difficult for some of us to say, it’s more difficult for all of you to understand. You’re always eager to hear what we say and to try to feed back with your expertise. Please give a big hand to our teachers. Thanks to the course directing team for bringing us to the Royal Palace and the Chao Phraya boat dinner.

This course is very tough. It started early and ended late. No one was sleeping, but listening carefully and joining in the activities. The teachings are very powerful with questions. These persuaded us to answer, to share ideas, to share our experience. We think that this is the most effective way of facilitating us to what goals you want us to achieve in each module. The questions always arouse us to think of alternative

ways and to find many possible ways to deal with them. The most important is giving us the opportunity to learn from our participants’ experiences in managing emergencies in each country. It’s like the Canadian great thinker Edward de Bono said “If you want to think, to decide, write it in the paper”. Your course formulates our thinking, which was done by ourselves. This thinking can be practiced in our plans in the future when we go back home. This is a great course; we are hoping that ADPC will continue to arrange it for the usefulness of people in the SEARO and WPRO regions.

Some of us may go back today, some will go back tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. We have to thank you for your arrangement in this Amari Boulevard hotel, which is in the heart of Bangkok. Thanks to our dear participants for your cooperation in the class. Almost two weeks that we stayed together – it made us like a family. You all are very lovely. Thanks for Dr. Bernard for his many questions and comments in the classes. Thanks for our host teams of the day for bringing us fresh and happy courses. Thanks to all of you. Yes, because this would not be so very wonderful, useful, practical, interesting and smoothly run without you. Give a big hand to us all. Good luck and have a nice trip back home. Thank you.

At the closing ceremony