IVVN African Schools Outreach Programme launches in Zambia
Scientists from the University of Zambia and Central Veterinary Research Institute visited Lusaka Girls Secondary School on 28 February 2020 to launch the IVVN African Schools Outreach Programme.
The aim of the programme, which established just over one year ago, is to provide women working in veterinary vaccinology with the skills and resources to deliver hands on workshops across schools in Africa with the hope of inspiring the next generation of scientists.
The Zambian outreach team, equipped with their mobile laboratory in a suitcase, visited Lusaka Girls Secondary School and delivered an experimental workshop to 30 girls aged 13-16 years old.
The workshop began with an introduction to Rabies and vaccination, followed by a demonstration on how to use the micropipettes. The students then had the opportunity to practise their new pipetting skills before performing an ELISA-based assay to determine the percentage of mock serum samples which were positive or negative, representing vaccinated or unvaccinated dogs, respectively. The students interpreted their results, and together with the scientists, discussed how effective the Rabies vaccination campaign was.
After the experiment, a “Meet the Scientist” session allowed the students to interact directly with the scientists to find out more about their careers in veterinary vaccinology
The workshop was well received by the students at Lusaka Girls Secondary School as illustrated by the feedback below. Congratulations to all of the scientists who hosted this workshop!
Zambia outreach team
The team that deliverered the outreach workshop in Zambia comprises:
- Dr Ntombi Mudenda, University of Zambia
- Dr Emma Sakala, University of Zambia
- Dr Nelly Banda, University of Zambia
- Dr Bruno Phiri, Central Veterinary Research Institute
- Dr Maureen Ziba, Central Veterinary Research Institute
- Dr Waza Nkana, University of Zambia
Follow the progress of the project on our Twitter account (@IntVetVaccNet) and using the hashtag #InspiringFutureScientists.
For enquiries regarding the IVVN African Schools Outreach Programme, please contact the IVVN Network Manager, Dr Carly Hamilton, at IVVN [at] roslin [dot] ed [dot] ac [dot] uk.
