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About the AMR Ambassadors Program for Young People in Africa
According to the World Health Organization, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death. As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat as seen in the two cases shared. The World Health Organization has declared Antimicrobial Resistance as one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity. Earlier this year in 2022, a study revealed that in 2019, estimated 4·95 million (3·62–6·57) deaths associated with bacterial AMR, out of which 1.27 million deaths were attributed to AMR. This is higher than the deaths attributed to malaria and HIV/AIDS combined in the same year.
Unfortunately, AMR does not have a direct face like other major healthcare problems, and thus there is little awareness and global efforts about it. That is why we are calling on you, a student in university or college, to become a champion in the fight against Antimicrobial Resistance by applying to join the AMR Ambassadors Program for Young People in Africa!
The AMR Ambassadors Program for Young People in Africa is a nine-month fenced program that seeks to empower tertiary level students from different faculties across the entire African continent to be active AMR champions! The program seeks to engage, and empower students pursuing health-affiliated courses as well as those pursuing non-health affiliated courses. The program is being implemented by Students Against Superbugs Africa with support from the PAR Foundation.
At Students Against Superbugs Africa, we strongly believe that each one of us can play an active role in the fight against Antimicrobial resistance and we are keen to show the world how collaborative and multidisciplinary engagement among young people can yield highly successful results especially in the African continent. We encourage applications from all students in universities and colleges in Africa irrespective of your course or profession background. Each one of us has a great role to play in the fight against the Antimicrobial Resistance pandemic.
The program is divided into three major phases.
Ambassadors Program for Young People in Africa: Phase 1 of the Program
Duration and Time commitment:
- This phase will run from September 2022 to December 2022.
- Participants will be expected to commit an estimated 8 – 9 hours every week.
Phase 1 of the program will serve as the foundation and cornerstone to equip all participants with knowledge on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), challenges that contribute to the rise in AMR, efforts that can be employed to curb this pandemic, as well as other cross-cutting issues in global health. At the end of this phase, each participant will have a good understanding of Antimicrobial Resistance and the complexities associated with it.
Additionally, the participants will also be equipped with critical skills, through targeted activities. These skills are to help them unleash their potential, mould them into young leaders, and as a result engage sustainably and effectively in actions to curb AMR.
Phase 2 of the Program
Duration and Time commitment:
- This phase will run from January 2023 up to the end of February 2023.
- Participants will be expected to commit an estimated 7-8 hours every week in the program.
In phase 2 of the AMR Ambassadors Program, the participants will transition into topics that will be hugely focused on designing and effective project management. Equipped with knowledge on AMR and key skill, the participants will be challenged to identify how their professional expertise/course background can contribute in mitigation of Antimicrobial Resistance. They will learn more about design elements, design thinking, system thinking, project management, and other key skills. The major objective will be to nurture their creativity and innovation.
AMR Ambassadors Program Participants will then engage in groups of 3-5 people are asked to ideate and generate proposal of innovative interventions that could help mitigate Antimicrobial Resistance from different aspects. The group members will each contribute their professional expertise in development of the intervention. Each group will also be assigned a mentor/advisor to assist them in the process.
Each group will have the opportunity of presenting their work in an open workshop where key stakeholders in AMR will be invited. The proposals will be shared with potential stakeholders to help them improve the proposed interventions and hopefully facilitate their interventions
Phase 3 of the Program
Duration and Time Commitment:
This phase will run for 3 months from the beginning of March 2023 up to the end of April 2023. Participants will be expected to commit an estimated 8-9 hours every week in the program.
This phase will be a blend of virtual and physical activities. Participants will mostly engage with local mentors at their local communities. The activities in this phase will be carried out in the groups that the participants applied for the program in.
Each group will be offered funding of an estimated country equivalent of 750 Euros (inclusive of transaction costs). With this funding, the participants will be challenged to ideate, seek for more funding, and implement a creative project aimed at kick-starting sustainable and catalytic AMR activities in their institutions, surrounding institutions, and local communities. The student projects will offer more inference and experience on a post-program intervention of building local youth network clubs across tertiary institutions in Africa.
Benefits of the AMR Ambassadors Program for Young People in Africa
- Empowering Tertiary level students to be active leaders in the fight against Antimicrobial Resistance
- The selected participants will be equipped with critical skills that will help them unleash their potential and mould them into young leaders
- Participant will have opportunity to network with like-minds across Africa
- They will be provided opportunity for mentorship.
- Best performing teams will be rewarded up to 700Pounds
Eligibility criteria
- The program is free and open to all students in universities and colleges based in Africa. All applicants should be students at a tertiary level institution (university or college) at the time of applying for the program.
- The application for the program is to be done at a group level.
- The group should have 5 members.
- Each group should have a designated group leader who will collate and submit the required details on behalf of the team members
- The group will be required to have a local mentor (lecturer or expert professional) who can support in the implementation of the local project. The mentor should also write a recommendation letter for the group and therein express their willingness to support the group.
- To promote diversity and multidisciplinary engagement, the organization of the group should be as follows: -2members of the group should be from “health-affiliated” courses while the other 3 members of the group should be from “non-health affiliated courses” -In this context, “health-affiliated courses” referred above are courses affiliated to: Medicine and Surgery, Nursing, Pharmacy, Veterinary Sciences, Medical laboratory Sciences, and Biomedical Sciences
- We highly encourage members of a group to be from the same tertiary institutions (Universities, colleges, technical training institutes, vocational schools). However, if from different institutions, the group members should be from institutions close enough to each other to facilitate collaborative implementation of a physical local project by all group members. Additionally, each member should have access to the focal institution where the local mentor hails from
- As part of the application process, the members will be required to submit their student identification cards to confirm they are students of a particular institution.
Deadline: 15 August 2022
How to Apply:
To apply, click here
For further information, click here