True blue 09.08

true blue
N e w s l e t t e r o f t h e F r i e n d s o f S t G e o r g e ’s
Confronting Neglected
Tropical Diseases
Grenada came to the House of Lords in June with a fundraising dinner for the Windward Islands Research andEducation Foundation (WINDREF) in aid of the fight against Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in the smaller states Message from RODNEY CROFT,
Commonwealth Scholarships –
Dean of Clinical Studies UK
opportunities available
The Commonwealth Grenada St George’s University Scholarship Programme, launched two years ago at Marlborough House – headquartersof the Commonwealth – now has eleven scholars enrolled, with a furtherfour taking up their places in this August term.
The first Commonwealth scholar at the School of Medicine, Stephen Osirofrom Kenya, has successfully completed his first academic year.A couplefrom the Maldives are joint scholars – Abdullah Zakariyya, who is on thetwo-year MBA programme, and his wife,Aminath Liusa, who is studying for It is immensely encouraging to see the expansion of her BSc in Management Information Systems. Students from Kenya, Nigeria, the Keith B Taylor Global Scholar’s Programme – with Cameroon and St Vincent are currently studying for their Masters in Public St George’s students taking their first year basic sciences at Health, while two students from Botswana are enrolled with the MBA Northumbria University before moving to Grenada to complete their pre-clinical training. Especially as, after “We are pleased to be offering these full tuition scholarships to some of graduation, a significant number will take up posts in the brightest young talent in the Commonwealth – particularly those in developing countries: a major objective of the programme.
financial need,” says Peggy Lambert, Dean of Enrolment Planning at St I attended my fourth White Coat Ceremony at Northumbria George’s,“and there are certainly plenty of opportunities left.We are ready in August where, with Sir Miles Irving, Chairman of the to consider applications at any time.All information is on our website Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust (pictured centre) and Dr John Madden,Associate Dean of Students in the US (right), A total of 75 scholarships were originally offered by St George’s, covering we helped to robe 148 students – up three fold from the graduate and undergraduate degree programmes, as part of the University’s 30th anniversary celebrations in 2007 – though not limited to any specific At the conclusion of the ceremony, prior to the students time frame.The scholarships are available to all 53 Commonwealth making their Professional Commitment promise I was countries, preference being given to students from developing countries pleased to remind them of their profound obligation to be of service to others – as relevant today as when I graduated,over 40 years ago.
Friends of St George’s
• Dr Peter Bourne • Mrs Vanessa Bourne • Sir Kenneth Calman • Mr Rodney Croft • • Mr David Jessop OBE • Baroness Hanham CBE • Baroness Howells of St Davids OBE • Sir Jim Lester DL • • Professor Sir Malcolm Macnaughton • Professor Ian McConnell • Lord Soulsby of Swaffham Prior • • Sir Kenneth Stuart • Mr Jonathan Taylor • Lord Walton of Detchant • Mr Bowen Wells •
Good Friend of St George’s
Baroness Howells of St Davids OBE,Ros Howells to her
and she has campaigned long and tirelessly for justice in the friends, is the only Grenadian in the House of Lords. Raised to field of racial equality. “I’ve never had a problem telling it as the peerage in 1999, St Davids – in her title – refers to the it is”, she says,“to either black or white”.
parish in Grenada where she was brought up, before leaving She certainly needed all her diplomatic skills during the investigations into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, who For a time in her life, she says, it seemed that she was “just was stabbed to death in a racist attack in 1993.
another Caribbean living in London”. She married an “I was a community relations officer in Greenwich”, she Englishman, John Howells, and had two daughters. She says.“It was on my patch.They were an ordinary family confesses that she knew little about politics in those days.
living in a multi-racial area. Nobody expected trouble.” And then things changed. She had always kept her links with She became a friend and adviser to the stricken parents.
Grenada – not least through her family – and in the late 1970s She retired as director of the Greenwich Racial Equality the government of Prime Minister Eric Gairy indicated that it Office after a distinguished and wide-ranging career in wanted her to return.“Out of the blue”, she says,“I was the voluntary and social services sectors, for which she suddenly appointed Deputy High Commissioner in London”.
was awarded an OBE. But for Ros Howells retirement is Come 1979, and Maurice Bishop’s revolution, the High not an option. She is often involved in debates in the Lords, Commissioner had been recalled and she found herself Acting where she sits on the Government benches, when High Commissioner,“holding the mission together”.
community affairs or Caribbean issues are discussed. Shewas recently elected Chancellor of the University of Luton.
From that moment,“I made up my mind that I would support Ros is no stranger to university life having been a member of the Court of Governors of Greenwich University where she And so it has proved. Few will forget, for example, her determined efforts to squeeze adequate assistance from the And there is St George’s: a long time Friend of St George’s, British Government after the ravages of Hurricane Ivan in 2004. she was appointed to the Board of WINDREF UK in 2006Her contribution to her adopted country, Britain, has been no and was recently invited by Chancellor Charles Modica to less. Community relations she describes as her great passion join St George’s University UK Trust.
“The University makes a huge contribution to Grenada’seconomy”, she says,“but it has also kept faith with our Dr Jim Yong Kim,named in 2006 by Time Magazine as island. It’s not just run as a business, it has philanthropic one of the “100 most influential people in the world”, was ideals which I like. It stretches out its hands to the hospital the commencement speaker when the largest audience in and health services in Grenada. It offers qualifications in the history of St George’s University attended the Annual social sciences to Grenadians, which assist a large number Commencement Ceremony for the School of Medicine at of our young people. And on the Grenadian side, the Avery Fisher Hall, New York, in May.
Grenadians respect educated people who want to becomepart of the community.They are proud of what the Dr Kim has spent over 20 years improving health in developing countries – particularly in the fields ofHIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.
“Grenada, with all its natural beauty, needs the kind ofinvestment that the University is making and it offers, as an He told the graduates that each one of them could help international centre, wonderful opportunities to other ease suffering in the world, with individual patients in developing parts of the world, such as Africa. I am very keen small communities, or in the world at large.
Speaking at the ceremony, Chancellor Charles Modicapraised those graduates, who had arrived in Grenada threeweeks before Hurricane Ivan in 2004.“You rose above these additional challenges”, he said “and dedicated muchto the rebuilding of Grenada”.
Agatha Tafadzwa Banga, has been accepted into St George's University’s 3rd Year Pre-Med Course Two ceremonies were needed to accommodate the starting in January 2009. “I’m really looking number of graduates from the December 2007 and June forward to the opportunity and to be part of such a diverse community”, she says. “I see St George’s as aplace that will provide me with a world classeducation, and stand me in good stead for the For further information please contact:
Agatha, aged 19, graduated from Peterhouse Girls School in Marondera, in 2007, achieving A levels in Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and French, which set her up perfectly for a degree in medicine. She held the position of both Head Girl and Junior Mayoress of the area, the latter being quite an achievement at such a young age. Agatha admits her choice to apply for St George’s was “greatly influenced” by Dr Carol Munyame, Tel: +44 (0) 1962 850 650Fax: +44 (0) 1962 850 567 a fellow Zimbabwean, St George’s Alumnus and former

Source: http://www.raittorr.co.uk/stgeorge/true_blue_v11.pdf