EARTHS EARTHS

Creating short films on global level ‘public health challenges’ or learning how to prepare German `Bratkartoffeln´, nice! But why is this worth a news? It is, when students and lecturers from across Africa, Asia and Europe unknown to each other, experience this together and build bonds.

‘EARTHS 2021’ has once again brought together 18 Master and PhD scholarship holders from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, Yemen, Indonesia and the Philippines. Together with selected Bachelor and Master Health Science students from the University of Applied Sciences Hamburg (HAW) they are currently attending an ‘Online’ Summer School, hosted by the ‘Health Sciences Department’ of the HAW’s Faculty of Life Sciences.

A scholarship program of the ‘German Academic Exchange Service’ (DAAD) for outstanding students from developing countries has made this possible. These DAAD scholarships support students to undertake their studies and research in their home country or region. “The EARTHS Summer School was set-up five years ago with the aim of strengthening the teaching and research skills of these young researchers, who will one day be taking up positions of responsibility in their fields” says Professor Ahmad. EARTHS is an abbreviation for `Education and Research oriented Training in Health Sciences´, it illustrates the ’Public Health’ focus of the Summer School.

Every year during the summer months Professor Amena Ahmad and her team at the HAW’s Health Science Department organize this program in Cooperation with the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM) (Department of Infectious Epidemiology). To date 120 students from Africa, Asia and the middle East have attended this lively course.

Most of the participating scholarship holders have never had the chance to come to Europe. Under normal circumstances we would have been inviting our international DAAD scholarship holders to Hamburg. For the second year in a row, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced us to opt for an online format. “I was so thrilled to come to Germany and would have loved to spend a month in Hamburg” says Ezra Anirudh, a participant from the University of Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa. The vivid experience of travelling through Hamburg on the S-bahn, taking a cruise on the river Elbe, visiting the medieval town of Lübeck and just staying together at a hostel is no-doubt irreplaceable. Nevertheless, “to our own astonishment intercultural exchange and building bonds is actually possible in an online format”, says Amena Ahmad, Professor for Public Health at the HAW and Head of the Summer School.

Since mid July 2021 students from eight nations have been attending workshops and seminars together with Health Science and Public Health students of the HAW, on Topics such as `Evidence-based Public Health´, `Scientific Writing’ and `Biostatistics´ on an almost daily basis, via the Online conferencing tool `Zoom´. Exploring traditional and innovative formats of science communication is another focus of this years summer school. “The interactive workshop on effective presentation skills, is excellent! The students practice their presentation skills, receive constructive feedback from their peers and the coach and develop confidence.” Speaking of more innovative formats, in the workshop on `Video Storytelling to communicate Science´ the participants work together in teams to produce short films on 21<sup>st</sup> Century Public Health Challenges, such as Obesity, Diabetes or the early detection of breast cancer. These short films will be presented on the 26<sup>th</sup> of August 2021 in an online film festival. In a similar activity last year, very worthwhile short films on topics such as `Mental Health during the Corona Pandemic´ were produced, here is a glimpse.

The EARTHS Summer School is about much more than gaining knowledge in the field of Public Health and learning new research skills. It is also about building bridges across cultures and religions. “Food brings together cultures! – hence we decided to cook a German dish, of course with potatoes! Under professional guidance we prepared `Bratkartoffeln and Hühnergeschnetzeltes’ (engl. Fried potatoes and cream chicken with mushrooms). “Cooking together in 25 kitchens across the globe turned out to be a fun filled event” says Professor Ahmad. A virtual city tour through historic and modern Berlin has been another highlight.

Although an ‘online format’ cannot replace the real experience of being in Germany, the positive experience of the last weeks has shown that “fostering academic excellence and intercultural exchange amongst DAAD scholarship holders and HAW students is, possible online too” says Prof. Ahmad. The EARTHS Summer School will be on until the end of August 2021.