South Africa
Focus: HIV, TB
Affiliation : Aurum Institute
Contacts:
Site and Background:
The Aurum Institute is an African, public-benefit organization whose mission is to improve the health of people and communities through innovation in TB and HIV integration in global health areas. Over the past 19 years, Aurum has grown from small beginnings and currently employs about 1200 staff, has an annual operating budget of $55 million and has managed grants in excess of $200 million that focus on TB and HIV research and health programs.
Active in all nine provinces of South Africa, Aurum’s mission is to improve the health of people and communities living in poverty through innovation in global health research, systems and delivery. Aurum seeks to make a differential impact, underpinned by an evidence-based track record of excellence in delivery against program objectives which have a transformational impact on health in the communities in which the Institute works.
Under the directorship of Dr. Salome Charalambous, Aurum will provide cross-institutional support for fellowship mentoring and training in collaboration with Drs. Sten Vermund and Albert Ko at the Yale School of Public Health. Dr. Charalambous also serves as an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Public Health and has been involved in HIV program implementation since 1998. With this collaboration, several young LMIC scientists have been trained in HIV/TB research, management and epidemiology, including Neema Nimja, PhD (2014), Aaron Karat, PhD (2015) and Yasmeen Hanifa, PhD (2016). The partnership has founded a training platform for numerous students and fellows in research by inviting both faculty and policy makers to evaluate and reform healthcare delivery in its surrounding community health clinics. Together, the partnerships have promoted scientifically rigorous and locally relevant research while building capacity for management and evaluation.