By Lindy Kravec
Pitt is building a relationship that will help enhance health in Mozambique.
Earlier this spring, Jessica Griffin Burke, associate vice chancellor for global affairs, health sciences, and professor of behavioral and community health sciences, School of Public Health, and Juan Carlos Puyana, professor of surgery and of critical care medicine, and director of global health for the Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, and professor of clinical and translational science, traveled to central Mozambique as representatives of the University of Pittsburgh as it solidifies a new relationship with the Gorongosa Restoration Project (GRP).
GRP is a unique public-private partnership with a dual mandate of supporting biodiversity and human development in and around the Gorongosa National Park, which is home to thousands of animals, like elephants and lions. The surrounding Sustainable Development Zone includes a population of approximately 250,000 people, more than half of whom are under the age of 18.
“Partnering with GRP to revitalize the local hospital and strengthen the regional health system presents a remarkable opportunity to realize Pitt Health Sciences’ global health vision,” says Burke. “[The Schools of] Medicine and Public Health are already engaged, but the scope and complexity of the work ahead calls for interdisciplinary collaboration—from nursing, pharmacy and dental medicine to the rehabilitation sciences. This is the kind of setting where all six health sciences schools can make a meaningful impact while learning from and working alongside local communities.”
Stay tuned for more information about Pitt Health Sciences in Mozambique.