The applicant must:

• Be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or have protected person/refugee status

• Be enrolled full-time in the Francophone component of the MD Program of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ottawa

• Be a resident of Ontario, according to OSAP (Ontario Student Assistance Program) regulations

• Demonstrate financial need, as determined by the University of Ottawa's Financial Aid and Awards Service

• Have completed high school in French and have French as a common language

The Benin Project

Clinical internship combined with a humanitarian project.

A clinical internship lasting four to five weeks and organized in partnership with the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Cotonou is offered each year to 4th year medical students and family medicine residents. This internship sensitizes students to the important health needs of Beninese people and allows them, with the cooperation of local stakeholders, to propose solutions to meet these needs. Students are required to develop a treatment plan for the most common problems, taking into account economic, religious and cultural issues, and respecting local pharmacopoeia and resources.

In addition to supporting the theoretical teaching in primary health care at the University of Abomey-Calavi, we organize a supervised practical training in an African village. Canadian learners work with a Beninese multidisciplinary team in this village to introduce a primary health care model that takes into account the health needs of this population.

The Benin Project is also a great platform for the development of research projects.

The objectives of the Benin Project

• To provide students and residents with a supervised and structured internship in a developing country

• To promote collaboration between the professors of the two institutions on the pedagogical, didactic and research levels (medical pedagogy)

• Develop a primary care curriculum at the Faculty of Health Sciences of Abomey-Calavi

• Develop an interprofessional internship with the participation of students from both countries

• Create a family medicine program

Funding

This project as a whole is made possible through various sources of funding:

• Sponsorship (money and equipment) from Montfort Hospital

• Fundraisers organized by the students going to Benin

• Financial and material support from private organizations

• Cash donations from the community

The Benin Project Fund

Contributions to this fund are used to defray costs related to the international internship in Benin, thusallowingto

• Facilitate the participation of learners and preceptors in the Benin Project international internship

• Develop a primary health care teaching program at the Faculty of Health Sciences in Cotonou, Benin

• Provide multidisciplinary training in rural areas for learners from both countries

• Equip learners with operational materials for the trip (e.g. nets for malaria prevention, a batch of drugs to treat patients on site, etc.)

Expected results

The learner, in addition to improving his or her knowledge of tropical medicine, will have a better understanding of the cultural, political and economic issues related to the health problems of the Beninese population. They will be called upon to identify and solve complex problems in collaboration with teachers and learners from both countries. The partnership with the Faculty of Health Sciences of Cotonou and the Regional Institute of Public Health of Ouidah allows the Faculty of Medicine to acquire expertise that will allow it to better respond to health challenges by better training the leaders of tomorrow.

For Benin, this partnership allows the introduction of primary care training into the curriculum, support for the reform that has been initiated, and the creation of a clinical internship in a rural environment. The ultimate goal is to improve the delivery of care to the population and health indicators.