Comunication

During the first week of March, two people from NAMA traveled to Luanda (Angola) to hold various meetings with different institutions interested in making the CHAT Africa project a reality in that region of the African continent.

NAMA met with Ms Minister of Ensino Superior, Prof. Doña Maria do Rosario do Bragança, of science, technology and innovation.

There were also meetings with the Ministry of economy and planning, with the Archbishop of Luanda and with Genera Paka, general director of the Institute of Social Security for Armed Forces of Angola.

It was a very enriching trip for the future of our CHAT Africa program

Mohamed El Yezid of the Institute de Hepatologie et Virologie de Nouakchott -INVH- (Mauritania) has recently joined. His project will focus on the application of the immunotherapy system developed in Afrilab to the treatment of hepatitis delta, an aggressive form of hepatitis without effective treatment at present, which is prevalent in his country.

At the beginning of December we have been summoned to have a meeting with the Kenyan Ambassador in UK as our project has been considered as a potential candidate to receive funds from the UK-Kenya Health Alliance (UKKHAP) program to be launched in 2020.

The encounter with the Ambassador took place in the Kenyan Embassy in London.

The outcome of the meeting was very positive and now the expectation that the project could be implemented in Nairobi integrated in Strathmore University (a very prestigious Kenyan academic Institution) seems realistic.

Mitchel Tumuhimbishe, a junior scientist from Uganda, joined Afrilab in early December.

He will be working in the CIMA laboratory for one year, extendable to two.

There he will work hand in hand with researchers from Afrilab’s laboratory to try to develop patents against prevalent diseases in Africa

The president of NAMA, Jesús Prieto, visited the National Institute of Hepatovirology of Mauritania, where he met with the director Pr Moustapha Mounah, in order to sign an international cooperation agreement between the NAMA Foundation and the INHV.

Bases were established to tackle the situation of viral hepatitis in Mauritania in relation to hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Delta hepatitis (HDV). NAMA and INHV undertake to promote cooperation and facilitate exchanges in the medical, health and technical fields of the 4 main areas of the institute: imaging, endoscopy, surgery and laboratory.

In mid-June we visited Paris to meet with the French Development Agency (AFD).

The Nama Foundation, with the heads of the French association AFTAMA (Association Française de Télé Assistance Médicale in Afrique), presented our CHAT Africa project to Christophe Paquet, head of the health division of AFD.

The conclusions of this meeting were as follows. The importance of finding a solid African partner who has already developed a health initiative. Study how to complement this organization: make an assessment of the aspects to be improved of said institution through the collection, treatment and study of information and develop from that study a project that implies the improvement of the existing institution.

The intention is to propose this project to ADF for its involvement and to grow from the development of this project as an institution or organization.

The NAMA Foundation visited the corporate headquarters of the Mondragon Group in Otalora, a building located in a site of incredible nature.

We had a half-day meeting in which, in addition to presenting the project CHAT Africa and Afrilab to involve them in Mondragon, the group presented us different social initiatives developed in Africa (Mundukide, Ayuda en acción and Africa Basque Challenge).

The intention is to work jointly between Nama and the Mondragon Group to join forces and involve other institutions in the projects.

It was a very interesting and enriching meeting. We hope to work with the help of the Mondragon Group.

Last February in Barcelona, ​​within the International Congress of the Mobile Sector (MWC19), our technological partner AIS Channel carried out the first tele-assisted surgical intervention in the world using 5G technology.

The presentation of the pilot test was developed between the installations of MWC19 Barcelona and the Clínic Hospital where, thanks to the 5G technology applied to the Telestratrion software of AIS Channel, a 5G operation could be performed in real time streaming among the medical equipment located in the hospital and the expert doctor located in the main auditorium of MWC19 Barcelona.

In the presentation, our friend Rod Menchaca, CEO of AIS mentioned the collaboration with NAMA by pursuing a common goal and taking on the challenge of getting medical advances all around the world. In recent weeks, NAMA has worked with AIS to study the technical feasibility of CHAT Africa and to implement in the project possible practical applications of its technological developments.

Given that this collaboration has been developed in online work sessions (through Gotomeeting platform), we were grateful to be able to personally share impressions of both the CHAT Africa program itself and the different technological advances witnessed in the Congress. As a result of the personal contacts of the MWC19, we have initiated conversations with mobile operators to try to involve them in our project.