Laboratory Technician, Lembata - Médecins du Monde

Laboratory Technician, Lembata , Indonesia
Closing Date: Wednesday, 30 April 2008

Médecins du Monde is an international humanitarian organisation whose mission is : to provide medical care for the most vulnerable populations when they are faced with crisis or exclusion from society, the world over, including France, to stimulate voluntary commitment from doctors, other health care providers, and from those whose expertise in other fields is needed for its activities, to enlist all competent support required for the achievement of its projects, to seek at all times to encourage close working relationships with populations in its care. based on its medical practices totally independent action, Médecins du Monde : identifies potential crises and threats to health and dignity so as to help prevent them, mobilises non medical assistance for solidarity campaigns denounces and bears witness to violations of human rights, especially denial of access to health care, develops new approaches and new practices for public health internationally,
based on respect for human dignity, commits itself to a relationship of total transparency with donors, campaigns for establishing humanitarian medical principles based on ethics of accountability.

Location: Indonesia ( INDONESIA (Lembata))
Closing date: 30 Apr 2008

Job Description
MDM France has been working in Indonesia since 1998, first at Moluques Island and after in Papua. A program post-tsunami was created in Aceh at the end of December 2004 and followed until the 30 September 2006.
Lastly, a program was created after the inundations in Jakarta from February until May 2007.
Three programs are actually running:
- primary health care and prevention of infectious diseases in the Puncak?s district Jaya, Papua
- primary health care in the North?s quarters? shantytowns of Jakarta
- primary health care for the Punan population of East Kalimantan
The MDM?s office in Jakarta , intervenes also as base country, in back-up of the different programs. More over, emergencies and disasters? kits are positioned; material and Human Resources are listed in order to intervene in a quick and appropriate way in case of emergency. The MDM?s team at Jakarta is composed by 2 expatriates: a country coordinator and a medical coordinator, and a national team of 9 people.
There is some malaria in the East of Indonesia. Its endemic behaviour reaches over 20% in Papua and Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) population. This areas offers a strong resistance to the dominate parasite (Plasmodium falciparum and Vivax) and to the treatments used in general.
The department of Nusa Tenggara Timur is composed of several islands (Alor, Timor, Sumba, Flores and Lembata). The Mondial Funds and the UNICEF offer a support to the first three islands. The island of Lembata where MDM proposes to intervene was beneficent of training activities, epidemiological supervision and supplying in medicaments but without receiving permanent support.
Malaria is the first cause of mortality in Lembata and in the adjacent districts of the Indonesian department of Nusa Tenggara Timur. In 2005, Malaria represented 18, 2 % of the total of curative activities of health?s services of the district (26 521 situations admitted).
In 2006, it was the first of 10 main causes of mortality of patients admitted at the hospital and equally from those who had used services of external consultation (4 499 users, 44, 6%). It means that this intervention after reducing the weight of malaria will reflect favourably on the general health of population and on the capacity of healthy services in order to resolve others pathologies.
Generally speaking, the presence and intensity of malaria in a community have a crucial impact on the health and quality of life of its members. More of its direct effect on health during sharp episodes, it generates chronic anaemia, facilitates infection by others agents and induces a delay in the physical and intellectual development, especially on children and with more gravity on pregnant women.
The importance of Malaria?s problem, the difficult access, the absence of others actors and the possibility to reduce the charge of illness in a limited time, were determinating factors in the choice of Lembata, with a coverage of all the island but with a concentration on the areas of major prevalence of illness.
The general objective of the mission is to improve the health of the population of Lembata?s island, and more especially to create a plan of fight against Malaria in the waste affected communities in order to contribute to the reduction (40%) of prevalence in 16 months.
The main activities are:
- study Malaria-metric close to children of 2 to 9 years old in at least 10 selected villages
- Offering some training to the health?s staff and agents of communal health about prevention, treatment to fight against Malaria on the places of the team activities.
- Support to the 7 health laboratories of the district
- Distribution of 5000 nets impregnated with anti-mosquito substances in the high-risk infection communities and the most distant from the health?s services of reference. This distribution will be accompanied by information sessions, education and communication in order to diffuse basic concepts of fight against Malaria
The Laboratory Technician participates in the Malariometric surveys and examines the blood slides collected to detect malaria species and the concentration of parasites. He performs and organises the continuity of the quality control of the activities of the laboratories of the 8 Puskesmas of Lembata district related with malaria diagnosis. He checks the quality and performance of the Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests used by MdM mobile teams.
His main duties are:
Management
- Assessment and improvement of the organisation of the laboratories of the 8 Puskesmas of Lembata.
- Supervision of the laboratory activities.
- Preparing the request for MdM laboratory equipment and supplies.
Training
- Assessment and upgrading of the laboratory staff.
- Preparation of training courses for improved malaria diagnosis, including species differentiation.
- Responsibility for the training of the laboratory technicians and collaborates in the malaria training for doctors / nurses / health staff on malaria diagnosis and checking on the practical application of the training material and the resulting effectiveness, in collaboration with the MdM team members..
He participates in the organisation or reorganisation of the 8 puskesmas laboratories to make them able to provide continuous microscopic diagnosis of malaria. He collects the medical information / reports:
- collection and analysis of the laboratory data of 8 puskesmas
- support the team coordinator in establishing the medical reports (laboratory issues)
About the meetings:
- Discussions with the team coordinator and training responsible
- MdM team internal meetings
Departure: ASAP
Duration: 3-4 months
Status: volunteer
Monthly Allowance: 800 Euros + Daily subsistence
- Biology license or equivalent
- Tropical diseases diagnosis
- Experience in tropical countries, with malaria activities
- Experience as a trainer
- English - Indonesian would be a must, but not a prerequisite
- Ability to observe, to listen, to understand, to adapt to the context
- To be openness
Vacancies Contact
secretariat.rhmissions@medecinsdumonde.net