Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) will join Chinese health authorities to build a national training center for China's public health and disease control professionals.

 

The center will offer courses and distance learning to thousands of public health workers and experts.

 

John Howe, the president and CEO of Project HOPE, an international health education and humanitarian assistance organization, that has served China since 1983, said the experience HOPE learned from its worldwide health education programs would be useful for China.

 

Project HOPE's goal in China is to make people in both rural and urban areas enjoy better health education and medical services, Howe said.

 

Howe and the members of HOPE's Board of Directors discussed the training center this weekend in Beijing with Ministry of Health and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) leaders, including Vice Minister of Health Wang Longde.

 

The training center is expected to function next year as a part of CDC.

 

Health education among the general public of China, especially people in rural areas, is not advanced and needs an urgent boost from more educated health workers, said Mao Qun'an, spokesman of the ministry.

 

Founded in 1958, Project HOPE is dedicated to providing lasting solutions to health problems. Its mission is to train professionals to provide people with the tools to be able to help themselves.

 

HOPE has carried out many national health education programs in China, ranging from diabetes to heart disease, and has reached nearly 300,000 doctors throughout the Chinese mainland.

 

Since 2001 when Howe was appointed as the CEO of HOPE, he has been to China several times.

 

He said that Chinese people are very caring people, and he feels good that his work can make a difference in people's lives here.

 

(China Daily April 3, 2006)