Sustainable Sciences Institute

ECUADOR PROGRAMS -In Ecuador, SSI provided technical, logistical and monetary support to develop alaboratory at INSPI (Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Salud Publica). Inaddition, SSI launched BIENSUR, a comprehensive care program to improveindigenous Ecuadorian womens health outcomes and well-being. A successful 2024pilot reached 50 urban, migrant, indigenous women integrating sexual andreproductive healthcare (SRH) including HPV treatment, mental resilience training,gender violence prevention (GBV), and community empowerment. SSI also providedscholarships for several students to complete their degrees at the SalesianUniversity, Quito, Ecuador.

Capacity-building workshopsled by ssi's scientific director, maria elena penaranda phd, ssi's capacity-building program trains and transfers technologies to nascent scientists and health professionals around the world via in-country, short-term, intensive hands-on workshops. Workshops are funded by government contracts, non-governmental organizations, scientific institutions, universities, private foundations and individual donors. Workshop topics include: techniques for cost-effective diagnosis and epidemiological analysis of region-endemic infectious diseases, research design, manuscript writing for publication, as well as proposal writing aimed at helping scientists crystalize their ideas and successfully apply for larger funding opportunities.ssi engages talented biomedical scientists and program directors and by extension their institutions - to serve as local trainers and mentors.using this "train the trainers" approach, ssi has developed a network of experienced peer trainers and tutors that has conducted over 100 workshops and trained more than 2,500 health researchers from 33 low income countries in africa, asia and the americas.this "train the trainers" model, combined with our long-term commitment, has built enduring and resilient networks that expand regional capacity to conduct clinical and basic research, develop critical skills and knowledge base among colleagues, and support regional scientists to effect real change in the health of their communities. Ssi's work is recognized as a model for technology transfer and capacity building by the world health organization (who), pan american health organization (paho), u.s. National science foundation, u.s. National academy of sciences, the gates foundation, and the ministries of health in several countries.in 2017, ssi trained 116 health professionals in six capacity-building workshops on laboratory techniques, scientific writing and research proposal preparation. The center for emerging and neglected diseases (cend) invited ssi to teach a proposal writing workshop for master's and doctoral students at makerere university in kampala, uganda. Due to ssi's experience implementing the latest techniques for detecting and diagnosing zika, dengue and chikungunya viruses, ssi also received a grant from the conservation food and health foundation (cfhf) to conduct laboratory training in central america. The workshop took place in honduras, with participation of scientists from panama, nicaragua, el salvador, honduras and guatemala.