The Uganda Public Health Fellowship Program graduated another cohort of Field Epidemiologists in January 2019, bringing the total number of FETP graduates to 30 since 2015. This was the third cohort of fellows trained in field epidemiology through an intensive 2-year in-service training. The eleven graduands were awarded in a colorful ceremony hosted at Golden Tulip Hotel, in Kampala, on 30 January, 2018. The ceremony was attended by the US Ambassador to Uganda, H.E Deborah Malac, Uganda Ministry of Health officials, the CDC Country Director and staff, the World Health Organization Country Representative, the Dean and staff of the Makerere University School of Public Health, USAID and District Health Officers.
During the ceremony, the graduands presented their achievements over the 2 years and used some of their projects to highlight evidence-based and policy-relevant recommendations for some of the public health challenges faced in Uganda. Projects under taken by fellows ranged from responses to public health emergencies, descriptive anayses of surveillance data on neglected tropical diseases, projects on HIV, and public health interventions aimed at improving quality of service delivery.
The certificate awarding ceremony was graced by Ambassador. Deborah Malac, who applauded Uganda for being at the forefront of building human resource capacity, which should be a priority of all re-source constrained countries. She thanked the Makerere University School of Public Health for working with the Ministry of Health to ensure that this key workforce is absorbed into its service structures. This graduation was testament to Uganda has put to good use the support from the US government. She wished the graduands success in all their future deployments.