The Visionary – Professor John-David Kabasa leading vets out of the “ivory tower” academic system and into the community
2012-06-25
As Team Leader and Principal of the Makerere University College
of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (COVAB),
Professor John-David Kabasa is a man of action. He leads with
conviction and does not hesitate to change the way things are done
if they no longer achieve what they set out to accomplish.
How many other academic leaders, could you imagine changing the
whole syllabus for 50 final year veterinary students to allow them
and their supervisors to go out into remote communities and to
treat 220,000 cattle over 10 weeks? That is precisely what
John-David organised in 2006 when he heard about the threats to the
communities in Northern Uganda of convergence of the two types of
sleeping sickness ravaging the country.
Being brutally honest, he admitted that some of the vet students
graduated with much theory, but in practice, they ran the risk of
limited technical and social skills, including community
mobilisation, and differentiating domestic animal breed-types such
as goats and sheep from well-nourished Alsatian dogs and
calves. As a result, he gave the go ahead to use the student
"brigades" in the largest mass treatment exercise ever organised by
the University.
The result is well known as a "win-win" situation. Students felt
fulfilled because they had put into practice the skills they had
been taught. Their confidence and professional pride were
reinforced by their service to the community. Communities on the
other hand were grateful to Makerere University and the student
teams for their heroic sacrifice and engagement in helping to clear
cattle of infection in these remote rural areas and thereby
protecting the health and livelihoods of the whole community.
But John-David did not stop there. Convinced that this
type of "One Health" in action was the way to go, he set about
bringing institutional and curricula changes to ensure that the
gains made under the SOS "entrepreneurial" way of working could be
sustained.
And so "AFRISA" was born - the Africa Institute for
Strategic Resource Services and Development, with its vision
of creating Healthier and Wealthier communities
through the deployment of young professionals into the community
(www.afrisa-africa.org). Convinced of the innovation, the Makerere
governing Council endorsed the initiative to fully establish AFRISA
as an autonomous, flexible, not-for-profit
Academic-Community-Public-Private Partnerships platform that
functions as a regional centre of excellence in strategic
development services. John-David is the founding director of this
innovations platform. The AFRISA "MINTRACS" (Makerere In-training
Community Services) programme now organises field experience for
over 50 vet students and 20 faculty staff every year, refining
their skills and serving the communities, into which many of them
will hopefully return. AFRISA further offers and nurtures a variety
of youth programmes including skills and enterprise incubation,
international cultural exchange, volunteer community services and
apprenticeships.
Actions speak louder than words. In John David's case, he has
used his oratory skills through the SOS initiative to make sure
that these drive change for the better.