Local medical auxiliary personnel – well connected to the native patients and operating in their home country will maximize the efficiency of the charitable medical and dental teams. Such auxiliary personnel can perform under supervision many activities enabling their physicians to concentrate on the important issues without any loss of time and unnecessary destruction. It is important to remember that medical volunteers are practicing for short times only and their services are not always possible year around.
Since the 14 years of civil war has completely disturbed and discontinued the education of any kind in Liberia, the idea of MOSA establishing our own institute of learning in the capital (Monrovia) is not only logical but also possible to accomplish thanks to the help and commitment of Mrs. Cheryl Flah-Kiahon, a native from Liberia, a talented and enthusiastic teacher for many years here in Palm Beach, Florida and at the same time a patient of our own dental institute.
When the MOSA - Liberia Institute of Science and Education project had been presented to Cheryl, she accepted the position of Institute Director with great enthusiasm.
Her commitment to return to Liberia and help with her country’s social revival is an inspiration for all of us and gives us the confidence that the Institute will be a grand success. Since the MOSA - Liberia Institute of Science and Education will share space with the MOSA Medical Center and MOSA Dental Center, the dental units we are ready to donate for the project can be used for training of auxiliary personnel as well.
From the initiation of the AfricaMedica.org project, much research has been done in the matter of logistics. Models from the past times in different African areas and countries in charity medicine and education have been examined and evaluated. Similar projects have failed due to lack of funds after the initial phase, others came to their end due to lack of commitment and still others just because the necessary local personnel could not be trained to the point of carrying on the already initiated project on their own.
Based on these studies, we at MOSA are presently completely redesigning the charitable project and adapting it to the new charitable possibilities and realities. The concept of the MOSA - Liberia Institute of Science and Education must be therefore simple to initiate, self promoting after the initial phase and capable to grow and adapt to all educational directions, such as medicine, economy, computer science, nutrition and advanced agriculture, prevention and hygiene and many other domains.
The educational concept of the MOSA - Liberia Institute of Science and Education based its structure on the most advanced principles of online-teaching, the webinars and tele-seminars. Online education is extremely beneficial, is very inexpensive, can reach a large number of students and real time presentations and practical demonstrations are possible. Since this teaching method does not require the physical presence of the presenter, the availability of highly trained teaching experts can significantly increase, constituting the most important benefit of this new method of learning. Diplomas online become more popular than ever.
Our experience in the last 4 years shows that the webinars and online courses are the only logical way of education on a minimal budget but at the same time delivering the highest educational values. This is the ideal way to deliver educational information through the classes of the MOSA - Liberia Institute of Science and Education.
If the educational concept has to work, grow and help with the recovery of the Liberian society, then this system must be cheap or ideally cost free and accessible to everyone, ideally independent of the students’ location. It must have the benefit of the best teachers and experts with real life experience – the real practitioners. Student must be able to absorb in a minimum of time the maximum of practical and applicable knowledge and be capable to deliver the acquired skills and education to the other members of his community as being a teacher themselves.
We are confident that once back in Liberia, Cheryl will be able to start very soon and will provide us here with first hand accurate information helping us to develop the curriculum of the Institute based on the actual current needs of the local Liberian situation. With Cheryl’s help, she being also our Liberian correspondent, we will edit in the future a Liberian News Bulletin, informing about the situation, where and how help is needed, sponsorship possibilities but hopefully also about our developments and success.
The MOSA - Liberia Institute of Science and Education must become a reality and begin its activity within 2012.
Our goal in developing this extremely important MOSA project is to reach through the MOSA - Liberia Institute of Science and Education a helping hand to as many Liberians as possible – particularly to the younger generation, who has lost the most precious years of their life during the civil war … to give them hope for the future … to help them provide better for their families through the acquired skills and education and bringing their support for the revival of a new and prosperous Liberian society.
The MOSA - Liberia Institute of Science and Education must become… "A Center of Hope".
Dr Florian Braich DDS PhD
MOSA Director
Medical Oxygen Society of the Americas
www.mosao2.org
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