3 FEBRUARY 2015
COMMUNITY NEWS
NAMIB TIMES
3
Pangolin visits Kuisebmond Disappointment, Frustration and Anger as UNAM Medical Students wait for Clarity Maria Davel-Wallis
same across universities, and to provide an assurance of fair play given that internal examiners might be prejudiced for or against a candidate. With this said, we do not wish The sixth years cannot be I thought it was time to hear nor have the authority to comment on the issues that cleared for internship by the things from our side. Health Professions Council Since we started our clinical have come to light these past of Namibia (HPCNA), be- rotations in our third year, few months. cause the Medical school is we have been working in However I can say this, we not fully accredited. Katatura and Central State are concerned and greatly The meeting, that was can- Hospital alongside many of dissatisfied with the manner celled last week, will hope- the doctors employed by the in which the HPCNA and fully shed more light on Ministry. Multitudes have UNAM School of Medicine their predicament. told us that we are on par, disregarded the law in the One of these sixth-year welcoming us to be part of setting up of the Medical students, Jessica Kirchner- the internship program of degree program, which resulted in us being misled Frankle, is from Erongo. 2015. She shared her thoughts Last year we completed our with regard to the duration with namib times: dissertations and worked for of our course of study which “Throughout the past five six months in the North should have never been years the pioneering stu- alongside specialists in the approved as five years since dents decided to not get fields of Paediatrics, In- this is against the law. As for involved with the media ternal Medicine, Surgery the law in the Namibian surrounding the tribula- and Obstetrics and Gynae- Medical and Dental Profestions experienced at the cology. All gave us similar sion act, most of the final UNAM School of Medi- positive feedback, hoping at year students heard of this cine, as we felt that the least half of us would be only a few days ago on 22 January. We do not know politics had nothing to do doing our internship there. with our competencies as The past two years we have who is to blame for this medical students. However done multiple electives and serious omission nor do we after multiple front page rural attachments in hos- believe that pointing fingers newspaper articles, Nami- pitals and clinics around the will bring us closer to a bian community are ques- Country, Continent and solution. tioning our competencies as World as some of the stu- We have been greatly afmedical practitioners and dents went to Germany and fected by this situation. With rightfully so. We do ac- Finland to learn how medi- bursaries only covering a knowledge that health is the cine is practiced in first five year program and being prepared to start earning a highest law and should world countries. never be taken lightly. Most importantly we wrote pay check end of January, However many negative and passed our final exa- many of us are now in things have been said about minations last year which trouble as we fail to provide our proficiency without involved external exa- to our families. However, we, evidence. We have worked miners. While the role of the as a class have come to extremely hard these past external examiner varies accept doing a sixth year of five years to become with the level of exami- student internship. Not beknowledgeable enough to nation, I believe that the cause we feel incompetent be safe doctors and to start purpose of the system but because it is the law. A internship in 2015. With no remains the same: to ensure sixth year can only add to intent of sounding egoistic, that standards are kept the our knowledge basis and we
Thrity-five 2014 fifth year Namibia School of Medicine students, who were supposed to go for internship this year, will hopefully today know more about their future, after a meeting with Unam authorities and stakeholders, reportedly scheduled for this afternoon.
Sinvula Reuben (left) with Alfred Muhinda and their guest of honour Liesl Losper During the course of last week, Sinvula Reuben, came across what is known as a Pangolin. Late that specific night, his dog was barking non-stop and he went out to see what was upsetting his dog. He found the creature, curled up into a ball. He immediately took it to shelter in his garage and kept it there until his cousin, Alfred Muhinda, showed up to help. They put the pangolin in a container to keep him safe. The next day, they contacted the Department of Nature Conservation, who said that it had probably been brought here by someone, maybe a smuggler, and then it escaped. The pangolin was taken to the NamibNaukluft National Park yesterday morning. Fact Box (Source: Wikipedia): The size of pangolins varies by species, ranging from 30 to 100 centimetres. Females are generally smaller than males. The tongues of pangolins are extremely elongated and extend into the abdominal
cavity. Large pangolins can extend their tongues as much as 40 centimetres, with a diameter of only 0.5 centimetres. Behaviour Most pangolins are nocturnal animals that use their well-developed sense of smell to find insects. The long-tailed pangolin is also active by day, while other species of pangolins spend most of the daytime sleeping, curled up into a ball. Arboreal pangolins live in hollow trees, whereas the ground dwelling species dig tunnels underground, to a depth of 3.5 metres. Pangolins are also good swimmers. Diet Pangolins are insectivorous. The bulk of their diet consists of various species of ants and termites and may be supplemented by other insects, especially larvae. They are somewhat particular and tend to consume only one or two species of insects,
even when many species are available to them. A pangolin will consume an average of 140 to 200 g of insects per day. Reproduction Pangolins are solitary and meet only to mate. Males are larger than females, weighing up to 50% more. While there is no defined mating season, they typically mate once each year, usually during the summer or autumn months. Conservation As a result of increasing threats to pangolins, mainly in the form of illegal, international trade in pangolin skin, scales and meat, these species have received increasing conservation attention in recent years. For example, in 2014, t h e I U C N ( I n t e rnational Union for the Conservation of Nature) re-categorised all eight species of pangolin on its Red List of Threatened Species (www.iucnredlist.org), and each species is now threatened with extinction.
Jarr
et & Kon Jarren ing 03.02.15
Your 18th birthday is a special occasion - it's when you get to celebrate your leap into adulthood. A wonderful, challenging, intriguing time of your life begins at 18. We only have one piece of advice for you two: be yourself because you have so much to offer the world of adults. Happy 18th birthday!
From all families
Jessica Kirchner-Frankle
will use it to identify weak spots in our training and it will surely help us as we strive towards excellence. Currently we are not attending classes nor working in the hospitals as we are awaiting information on how we expect this year to run. We are tired of being caught up in the middle of poor management. I have had the pleasure of working with all 34 of my colleagues. Never have I worked with a group more passionate, undeterred and hard working. We urge the Namibian community to not lose faith in the Namibian trained doctors due to politics and scandal�. Hopefully Jessica and her classmates, will have clarity about their future today. Meanwhile the more than sixty 2015 fifth years who have been boycotting classes and have sent a letter of demand to authorities, that was answered last week, started attending classes yesterday, in a positive step towards the authorities' resolution of their predicament. The Ombudsman, John Walters, will represent the 2015 fifth years at today’s meeting.