A new section on pre-service education has been added to our website. This section provides information on IMCI pre-service training, describing past and current experiences with the integration of public child health approaches in teaching programmes of medical schools and allied health professional schools. The information contained in this section is based on the rich experience acquired with over 20 medical schools in the Region over the years, since IMCI pre-service training was introduced in Alexandria University in 1998, pioneering global efforts in this key area. The new section includes the following topics: what is pre-service education, IMCI pre-service training, objectives of IMCI pre-service training, rationale, lessons from the past, phases of IMCI pre-service training, resources, schools involved in the Region, Regional events, your views. The Regional strategy on IMCI pre-service training is outlined, with a description of its main phases at national and institutional level. To view the pre-service education section, click on the item “Pre-service education” on the left menu.

The Third Regional Infant and Young Child Feeding Counselling Training Course will be held in Aswan, Egypt, from 17 to 22 December 2005. The course aims to create a pool of regional facilitators from the IMCI country teams in the area of child feeding and strengthen the capacity of these teams in the area of child feeding counselling. The course builds on the experience of two previous Regional breastfeeding counselling courses conducted in 2003; it makes use of the final Arabic version of the training materials on feeding counselling developed by the Regional Office through a thorough adaptation of the generic breastfeeding counselling training materials and integration of complementary feeding and feeding in special circumstances into one training package. The English version of this Regional training course is under preparation and is expected to be available in 2006. Participants will include 24 physicians from 11 Arabic-speaking countries in the Region, namely Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia and Yemen. The training course will be conducted by 11 facilitators from 4 countries in the Region. Clinical sessions will be conducted in Aswan Teaching Hospital and Primary Health Care facilities. Besides facilitating the training course, the facilitators will also visit one of Community Development Associations in Aswan, to share experience on the breastfeeding community component.