Duration of the contract: 1 year
Country: CHINA (Qinghai province in a Tibetan area)
Place of work: Xining (provincial capital of Qinghai) and Gande
Context : This programme takes place in the western part of China in the Gande County. This county is inhabited mainly by nomadic Tibetans (90% approximately). We work in collaboration with the Health Authorities at the County, prefecture and provincial level.
Job description : medical doctor, with a clinical experience. He/she will be in charge of the general co-ordination of the programme, which will require some experience of how to manage a programme and a team.
Budget : 1 069 734 €
Donor : EU (75%) from April 2002 to November 2004
Others donors are currently approached
General Objective : within 3 years, to sustain the development of the health care system in the county, to improve the quality of the services provided by training the staff, rehabilitating the different premises and facilitating the interaction between traditional and western medicine.
Specific objectives :
- To make operational the two levels of the health care system in this County by training the whole staff involved and by the rehabilitation of 6 clinics and the two hospitals in Gande (a general one and a Tibetan one).
- To facilitate access to health care for the nomadic population by training the nomad doctors and raising awareness among the populations through health promotion activities. The emphasis will be placed on Acute Respiratory Infections among children and the reproductive health.
- To develop and rationalise the interaction between traditional and western medicine.
This programme takes place in the Gande County which is the poorest of the Qinghai province.
This programme began in April 2002
Duration of the programme : 30 months
Team in the field in April 2003 : 4 people - one medical co-ordinator, one administrative officer (he can speak Chinese), one nurse, one logistician (architect)
Daily work :
1. To monitor the medical programme. The local staff consists of two medical doctors (one is trained in western medicine, the other one in Tibetan medicine), one nurse and a health educator (in the process of being hired) and a medical doctor in Xining. The main activities are : health education, training of the nomad doctors, implementing and monitoring the training programme of the medical and paramedical staff of the Gande County in referral hospitals in Xining, and training the same staff but on their place of work by a regular monitoring.
2. To organise and monitor the training activities in Gande county with a special emphasis on the two Gande hospitals. Some formal training sessions have been organised and should be organised to address the major medical problems in this region such as ARI and the use of antibiotics.
3. To monitor the rehabilitation programme with the logistician. : 6 clinics in the townships and the two hospitals in Gande.
4. To monitor the whole programme : to ensure the relationships with our local partners and the institutional donors with the administrative officer
Staff to be managed : 3 expatriate and 10 local people.
NGO experience : essential
Language : French Spoken/ Read/ Written
Desirable but not essential
English Spoken/ Read/ Written
Essential
Our Chinese or Tibetan translators speak English, which means that our only common working language is English
Chinese A Plus
Driving license: No
Good Knowledge of Word & Excel
Other skills :
- A previous experience of team management will be a plus because the medical co-ordinator is also in charge of the general co-ordination.
- A previous experience in China or Asia will be also a plus, because of the very specific political context in China
- Open-mindedness or at least a genuine interest for traditional medicine is essential : the Tibetan medicine is widely used by most of the medical staff in the Gande County ( in hospitals, clinics, not to mention the nomad doctors)
This programme takes place in a very remote area (at a 12-hour driving distance from Xining) where the living conditions are difficult . The average height is 4000m, which makes an excellent physical condition essential.
Accommodation is rather basic in Gande and it is necessary to be flexible and adaptable.
On a physical point of view, it is indispensable to check you dental health before.
On a more personal point of view, a good ability to live in a team, and to be easy-going are necessary. Everyone should bear in mind that there is a strong feeling of isolation in Gande, mainly for linguistic reasons. Everything is written in Chinese, nobody speaks English (except in the staff). But Internet and the telephone work quite well.
That is the reason why the team lives together much alike in a ship cabin.
As far as the Tibetan problem is concerned, we are not in the Gande county to take a political stand on this issue. Our objective is to improve the health services provided to every citizen (Chinese, Tibetan or from other minorities) and to achieve our objectives we work in close collaboration with the Health authorities.
