‘Healing Southern Sudan’
A talk by Dr. Thomas Burke, Sunday August 14th @ 4pm, Karen Club
Just two and a half years ago, 400 medical students at the University of Juba, College of Medicine in Southern Sudan (the only medical school in Southern Sudan) found themselves with no classrooms, no teaching materials, six books and one part time instructor. They are unrecognized treasures that had been lost amidst the post-war rubble. Most of the students were malnourished, only three were immunized, half had no bed nets, and the only source of drinking water was directly from the Nile. They were soon to be the nation’s only hope for doctors.
Learn about these students and an ambitious and innovative Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival programme which is directly addressing the worst maternal and infant health indices on our planet.’
Come and listen to this amazing, extraordinary and heart-warming story of how ‘Sudan is being healed’. This is the Harvard Club of Kenya’s inaugural talk by a visiting professor.
Sunday 14th August, 4pm @ the Karen Club.
Members KES 200, Non-Members KES 500. Tea & biting inclusive, cash bar
RSVP to Megan White Mukuria, Vice-Chair Programs, Harvard Club of Kenya, megan [at] zanaafrica [dot] org or by Friday 12th August
Bio on Dr. Thomas Burke
Thomas Burke, MD, FACEP is Chief of the MGH Division of Global Health and Human Rights and faculty at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Burke has extensive experience in the public health arena as a senior emergency physician, a faculty member and researcher, and as a leader in the nonprofit sector directing overseas health programs since 1994.
Dr. Burke’s efforts through his Division have been principally focused on women and children’s health and human rights. Current and recent past programs include efforts in Zambia, Liberia, Southern Sudan, Mali, Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda. Additionally, the Division is developing a community peace index as well as embarking on action-based research on sex trafficking of girls and women on several continents.
Dr. Burke’s many extraordinary experiences include seven years in the U.S. Army with several overseas deployments and serving as the doctor for the FBI Hostage Rescue Team at Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho. He was director of the emergency department in the U.S. Army’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center during the Bosnian crisis and helped care for 28,000 refugees in Guantanamo Bay in 1995. Dr. Burke successfully started three companies (clinical applied trials and land development) and, in the mid-1990s, ran an NGO that developed medical education systems in Eastern Europe.
Prior to joining the MGH, Dr. Burke was Associate Clinical Director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a faculty member for the hospital’s Division of International Health and Humanitarian Programs. He also held a Director’s position within the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr Burke has published numerous articles in The New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, Academic Emergency Medicine, 911 News, Annals of Emergency Medicine, Critical Decisions in Emergency Medicine, the British Journal of Midwifery, and other peer reviewed journals. He is an author of Topics in Pediatric Emergency Medicine and has also co-authored several articles on organ trafficking. Dr. Burke serves as advisor or member to several boards, including Americans for UNFPA, the Bianca Jagger Foundation for Human Rights, and he has close ties to numerous national and international leaders. Dr. Burke also serves on the Harvard Medical School Admissions Committee and the Harvard University Committee on African Studies.
