Agreement with the Spanish General Council of Nursing to promote the training of African nurses.

Madrid, October 14th, 2020. The General Council of Nurses (CGE) and the Women for Africa Foundation (FMxA) have signed a collaboration agreement to work together on various agreements in the health, social action and volunteer sectors with the aim of improving the quality of life of the African population and the health professionals who work there.

During the next few years, both institutions will sign specific agreements for the articulation of cooperation projects. Thus, within these action strategies, they will seek to prioritize cooperation alliances with African nurses, recognizing the profession as the backbone of the health systems in the countries of the African continent.

To begin, the two organizations will carry out a training course in Public Health Emergencies for 65 nurse leaders from Ghana with the objective of giving them all the guidelines on how to act in times of health crisis such as, for example, the current COVID-19 pandemic, which has already claimed one million victims. The CEM, through the Higher Institute of Health Training (ISFOS) and Nursing Solidarity, together with the FMxA will focus on the reinforcement and recognition of the profession through education, training and awareness actions, as well as the strengthening of nursing institutions and organizations. This first project will be carried out through the Canarian delegation of Solidaridad Enfermera and with the collaboration of the Nursing Association of Tenerife and the Government of the Canary Islands.

“The contribution of nurses to health care is crucial and with this agreement we seek to strengthen their role at a global level in order to promote universal health coverage. From the College Organization we have always been very committed to cooperation and being able to help promote and enhance health in African countries has always been one of our priorities. Now, with this agreement, we are getting even closer to the continent. Under these circumstances, at a time when we cannot do without our professionals in Spain, we are going to develop online projects like this one to bring our African colleagues all the necessary knowledge with the aim of promoting the prevention and detection of diseases,” said Florentino Pérez Raya, president of the General Council of Nursing, during the signing of the agreement.

For her part, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, president of the FMxA, indicated that “in Africa nurses make up 70% of the health personnel, the essential pillar of the attention to the population. Offering them training and accompaniment is, therefore, the best way to support public health systems on the continent, and no one can do that better than the magnificent Spanish nurses”.

From the CEM they consider this collaboration fundamental and more in a crucial moment as the one that is being lived at world-wide level. “Africa is a continent with a precarious health situation in some countries and we must all be involved in order to achieve that development they deserve. African nurses, and more specifically those from Ghana in this first project, must have the necessary training to deal with diseases such as COVID-19, but also others that have been dragging on for centuries. We are facing a global health crisis, but from the countries of the West we cannot forget that in Africa other infections such as malaria or HIV live daily. These have claimed millions of lives in recent years and are also a real problem for them as the main affected, but also for the rest of the world, which should not look the other way,” said the president of the nurses.

In short, as both organizations have expressed, this project is the first of many in which they will seek to identify health problems in disadvantaged groups to give the tools necessary to provide effective solutions, which contribute competently to improving the living conditions of individuals and communities.