Partnership with the University of West Indies-Mona Campus since 1985 on a range of collaborative activities.

Partnership Profile

The University of the West Indies (UWI) is a dynamic, international institution serving the 16 countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean. Of this network of UWI schools and centers, the UWI Mona campus in Kingston, Jamaica is home to the medical, nursing, and public health programs, which enroll students from the entire English-speaking Caribbean region. There is a strong emphasis on Caribbean issues, making UWI the ideal educational institution for local and international students with an interest in Caribbean region, which has helped leverage the MPH program at UWI Mona in making a regional impact. The Sparkman Center has also started partnerhips with UWI Community Health and Psychiatry, UWI CHARES, and UWI School of Nursing, The Ministry of Health, Western Regional Health Authority, and UNICEF Jamaica.

In addition working with UWI, the Sparkman Center has begun to work with local NGOs including:

• Caribbean Vulnerable Communities, whose mission is provide services directly to those vulnerable to HIV infectious to help improve their access to treatment and healthcare.
• Jamaica AIDS Support for Life (JASL), the oldest and largest AIDS, human rights, non-governmental organization of Jamaica. Their mission to preserve the dignity and rights of persons living with HIV and AIDS and to help in their fight against the spread of HIV and AIDS by providing education, empowerment, and to change attitudes.
• Children First, a unique community based organization which uses creative participatory and developmental approaches in providing life change programs for children and adolescents.
• The Ashe Company, a performing arts group that hope to inspire and foster empowerment of all people, exclusive of non, to live a life of integrity and fulfillment, doing what they love and loving what they do.
• Eve for Life, serves to support women and children living with or affected by HIV and AIDS.
• Jamaican Network of Seropostivies (JN), educates and tries to decrease the stigma of HIV and AIDS in Jamaica through educational and capacity building activities, and promoting the rights and concerns of those living with HIV/AIDS.

Accomplishments

The Sparkman Center and UWI began collaborating on public health education and training activities in the Caribbean in 1983 which included the development and support of an MPH program at UWI that began in the fall of 1985.

In 2000, a field training course was initiated in collaboration with faculty at the UWI Mona campus. The course brings Caribbean region students with US-based students in shared laboratory and field experiences which aims to foster problem-solving skills for infectious disease ecology, surveillance and control. Since then over 300 students from 28 countries have participated in the course. For more information on the Jamaica Field Course, click here.