Odisee College on an immersion trip to Benin

Since 2014, the Foundation has collaborated with Odisee and facilitated internships for nursing and midwifery students, and nutrition students, in the regional hospitals Hôpital St Martin and Hôpital St Jean de Dieu, local partners of the Foundation.

From 12 to 26 February 2022, 24 students from Odisee College went on an immersion trip to Benin. Nursing students from the Aalst, Sint-Niklaas, and Brussels campuses and biomedical laboratory technology students from the Ghent campus participated.

For several years, Odisee has been cooperating with the University of Dassa for laboratory technology and with the University of Parakou for nursing. The immersion trips organised by Odisee are part of this long tradition of cooperation. Students and teachers from Belgium and Benin have a unique opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience and get to know each other’s living and working environments.

At the nursing school in Parakou, Beninese students prepared a presentation on diabetes and communication for their Belgian colleagues. The Odisee students organized workshops where they collaborated with their Beninese colleagues and exchanged bandaging techniques.

At the nursing school in Parakou, Beninese students prepared a presentation on diabetes and communication for their Belgian colleagues. The Odisee students organized workshops where they collaborated with their Beninese colleagues and exchanged bandaging techniques.

Students also complete a full day of work experience during the immersion trip: nursing students in a hospital, medical centre, or doctor’s surgery and biomedical laboratory technology students in a laboratory.

The students are also sent into the field. They visited several villages to screen young children for malnutrition and malaria. After a briefing on identifying malnutrition and malaria, the students set to work. Many children were malnourished. As many as 85% of the children tested were infected with malaria. The children received the necessary care and medication on the spot and – if necessary – were referred to a medical centre or hospital.

Finally, all students participated in a full-day Red Cross blood drive. They took blood samples themselves and recorded the donors’ weight, blood pressure, and temperature.

In addition to study-oriented activities, there was also time for relaxation and tourism.