Ethiopia: Biomedical Engineer, Ethiopia - short term volunteer placement

Placement: Mekelle University (MU) Location: Ethiopia Length: 3-6 months

Ethiopia is Africa’s oldest independent country, and is also one of the poorest. Ethiopia is currently engaged in a highly ambitious effort to realign its higher education system in order to contribute more directly to its national strategy for economic growth and poverty reduction. Its achievements over the past five years have been little short of extraordinary. The reforms have targeted all levels: the overall system, the institutions, and the academic programmes. You will work with Mekelle University (MU) and with your professional skills, provide improved use of medical equipment to increase the service to the community. There is a lot of non-functioning medical equipment due to technical problems and few people with medical equipment knowledge and skill.

What does the role involve?

The role of the placement is to build the capacity of MU, both to improve current service delivery and also to make full use of new facilities being developed. There is a huge degree of flexibility within the role and duties may include: • assess medical equipment; identify non-functional equipment and maintenance required in collaboration with college staff and technicians • develop action plan showing what type of maintenance can be provided with the capacity of volunteers, e.g. input needed, support needed and a time table
• carry out medical equipment maintenance and train staff and technicians • provide assistance to other VSO supported hospitals in consultation with other volunteers

Skills, qualifications and experience required You’ll have at least a BSc in Biomedical Engineering and ideally a Masters, plus you will have completed general Biomedical Engineer training. You’ll have good experience in your field and be able to perform advanced maintenance of medical equipment. You’ll, also ideally, have experience teaching and sharing skills with colleagues. You will have good interpersonal, networking and communication skills. You’ll be patient and flexible to work with limited resources, have a positive attitude and able to maintain confidentiality and a desire to contribute to a national health programme.

And the rest.... You will be based in Mekelle, a large town situated in the northernmost region of Ethiopia. It lies at an altitude of 2,200m and so is not malarial. Facilities are very good, with an excellent range of shops, cafés and restaurants, and a large and interesting market. We’ll ask you to commit to at least 6 months to make a sustainable contribution to our development goals. In return, we’ll provide you with extensive training before your placement, and our financial package includes a local living allowance, return flights, accommodation, insurance and more. When you return to your home country, we'll support you to resettle.

To find out more about volunteering with VSO or to apply, go to http://www.vsointernational.org/volunteer/ and reference ETH0530/0004/0001 in your application. On average it takes a minimum of 4 months to go through the application process so apply now for departure in 2013.

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