Dear Centre Leaders,
Greetings from the INDEPTH Secretariat. We hope you have had a good week.

We have the following items for your attention this week:

1. Good-bye 2014, Welcome 2015
From the Executive Director
As the year 2015 has just started, it is with a grateful heart that I thank everyone, on behalf of my management and myself, for all their efforts throughout the year.

The success of INDEPTH is built on the efforts of all of you and during the year under review, we have enjoyed many successes. Thank you for the commitment, dedication, partnership, advice and loyalty that you have shown.

We have come through a year that was filled with both challenges and successes. We will mention some of the key ones.

The INDEPTH family expanded with three new centres joining the Network. They are the Chokwe HDSS in Mozambique; Cross River HDSS in Nigeria and Kyamulibwa HDSS in Uganda.

With these additions, INDEPTH Network currently has 45 member centres operating 52 HDSS field sites in 20 countries in Africa, Asia and Oceania. This calls for celebrations because we have crossed the 50 mark, starting with 17 HDSSs in 1998.

True to our word, on July 1, 2014, INDEPTH announced important updates on the INDEPTH Data Repository (www.indepth-ishare.org) and INDEPTHStats (www.indepth-ishare.org/indepthstats), two online data archives that continue to build and strengthen capacity ... read more

2. INDEPTH Board Elections 2014
We are pleased to announce the election to the INDEPTH Board of

3. Short course on vaccine evaluation
This intensive two-week course on the Epidemiological Evaluation of Vaccines: Efficacy, Safety, Policy - will take place from 6 – 17 July, 2015 at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The overall aim of this course is to provide an understanding of the methods used in the evaluation of vaccines; from early human trials through to assessment of population impact and policy.

Please see attached for details.


4. Meet our graduates from the INDEPTH-funded MSc Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
We bring to you, a letter of appreciation from Irene Tampuri Azindow, Kintampo Health Research Centre, Ghana. She completed her course last year. This series of short profiles is to introduce the more than 30 HDSS scientists who have been funded by INDEPTH to pursue the MSc in Population-based Field Epidemiology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Scholarships for this programme have been graciously provided by Sida, Rockefeller Foundation and the Gates Foundation.

More information on the INDEPTH Scientific Development and Leadership Programme can be obtained by clicking on the following link: Leadership Programme.

Name: Irene Tampuri Azindow
Institution: Kintampo Health Research Centre, Ghana
Host DSS for field placement: Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies

“The MSc programme has afforded me the opportunity to have an education I could only dream of. As a young researcher, the programme was well suited for me since it equipped me with skills for the design and conduct of research as well as managing and analysing data. The theoretical and practical nature of the programme provided a better understanding of the courses. The conduct of the applied field epidemiology at the Agincourt HDSS provided me with practical insight into the operations of the HDSS. Additionally, the discussions after field visits offered a platform for the exchange of ideas among students and the facilitators about how some activities in the HDSS were run and the similarities and differences across sites that students have worked in. My field placement at the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies was also a good experience.

I am highly indebted to the INDEPTH Network for the scholarship to pursue the master’s programme as well as my Director, Dr Seth Owusu-Agyei, for his mentoring and recommending me for the scholarship.

My sincere appreciation also goes to my supervisors, Prof Kerstin Klipstein-Grobusch and Dr. Portia Mutevedzi and the lecturers and administrative staff of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of the Witwatersrand”.

Thank you.
Have a restful weekend!

Becky Kwei