Dear fellow healthcare practitioners, dear students, dear interested guests,

we would like to invite you to the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Tropical Paediatrics and International Child Health (GTP) in May 2025. We welcome you to join us in the discussion around Decolonizing Global Health, especially emphasizing the right to health for all children worldwide.

The major objective of the conference is to facilitate critical reflection and constructive dialogue regarding the historically shaped power imbalances and structures in the field of global health research, teaching, and practice between high-income countries and low-income countries.

During the conference, we will listen to and discuss with international experts, researchers and practitioners to analyze the given structures and challenges of global child health and discuss new ways of achieving more equitable health care. Together, we would like to encourage the discourse and engage in the process of re-imagining global child health through interactive workshops, input presentations and panel discussions.

In addition to clinical topics, we will be addressing the following issues:

• Global Child Health Today: International perspectives and challenges for the health and well-being of children worldwide, including violence, conflict and war
• Addressing inequities through the lens of intersectionality: In-depth exploration of racism and other forms of discrimination affecting child health and well-being
• Decolonizing International Cooperation? A conversation on histories, experiences, powers, and perspective

[read more] The pre-conference workshops will be dedicated to topics such as:

• Clinical training, including the established ETAT+ system (Emergency Triage, Assessment, and Treatment), pediatric ultrasound, and interdisciplinary training for health professionals
• Health professionals and climate change: challenges and solutions
• Raising awareness for female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C)
• Media analysis of racist and colonial narratives and their influence on current discourses

The conference intends to be a place for exchange and reflection, a space for all of those who want to combine clinical input with critical examination of the inequities that persist in global child health to this day. Together, we will explore how international and cross-cultural cooperation for health equity can be achieved without perpetuating colonial structures, offering inspiration for sustainable change.

We look forward to welcoming you and having lively discussions.[/read]

Conference Language: English
Nota bene: Photos and videos will be taken during the event to publicize the GTP and its projects

Global Health Professional Exchange: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Perspectives
(Tiavina Noely Randrianarimalala, Sylvie Anne Genier, Anna Njillo, Irene Schmidt)
In this workshop, we will explore key aspects of international partnerships, focusing on effective collaboration, intercultural communication, and common challenges. Through group discussions, we will reflect on mutual learning, equality in cooperation, and ways to improve communication. We will also address potential obstacles, such as differing expectations, guidelines, and the role of decolonization in project work. By sharing experiences and perspectives, participants will develop strategies for stronger, more respectful, and solution-oriented partnerships.
More Information and Flyer

ETAT+ (fully booked)
(Dr. Babara Zimmer; Simone Ross, Anke Fischalek, Sara Loetz, Dr. Amie Conteh (The Gambia), Dr. Haja Sovula (Freetown, Sierra Leone))
ETAT (Emergency Triage, Assessment, and Treatment) is a comprehensive and proven “critical care pathway” developed in Malawi and adopted by the WHO. The program decreases the delay to treatment for critically ill children and enables all health staff to initiate emergency care following a standardized approach. It focuses on the most common manifestations of pediatric emergencies and provides only cost-effective recommendations, making it particularly suitable for resource-limited settings.
The ETAT Germany working group of the German Society of Tropical Pediatrics and Global Child Health (GTP) offers ETAT Plus courses in Germany for all healthcare personnel who are (or will be) working with children in resource-restricted settings.

Workshop on FGM in Children
(Dr. med Maryam En-Nosse, Dr. med Leonie Wohlklang, Dr. med Katharina Ulreich)
This workshop introduces the topic of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in children. The focus will be on the significance of FGM in pediatrics and the particular challenges it poses in child protection cases. We will discuss the differtent Types of FGM in Children, particularities in diagnostics, the health and psychological consequences, as well as the legal and ethical aspects that professionals should consider when dealing with affected children.

Sprachbarrieren und dolmetschervermittelte Kommunikation im klinischen Alltag (German Workshop)
(PD Dr. med habil Amand-Gabriel Führer)
Dieser Workshop beleuchtet die Möglichkeiten des Umgangs mit Sprachbarrieren im klinischen Alltag und erarbeitet die Vor- und Nachteile verschiedener in der Praxis etablierter Herangehensweisen. Ein Schwerpunkt liegt hierbei insbesondere auf der Arbeit mit Sprachmittler*innen und den Besonderheiten, die ihr Einsatz für die Gesprächsführung mit sich bringt. Neben der theoretischen Auseinandersetzung mit diesen Themen, sind in den Workshop praktische Übungen integriert, in denen die Teilnehmenden üben können, eine dolmetschervermittelte Anamnese zu erheben.

„Beat the Heat“ – Developing a Heat-Health Action Plan Protecting Health and Building Resilience
(Katharina Ruppert (Germany), Prof. Diavolana Köcher (Madagaskar), Dr. Alexander Weise (Germany), Dr. Sarah Kotsias-Konopelska (Germany), Dr. Charlotte Adamczick (Germany), Dr. Nellie Bell (Sierra Leone))
Building on experience from an international audience to fuel discussion and exchange we will evaluate and develop concepts for various settings

Analyzing Images and Tropes of Migration in Public Media: Interactions between Affect and Narratives in Legacy and Social Media
(Dr. Simona Adinolfi )
Consider the word migration. Think about all the time you hear it in your daily browsing of news feed, social media platforms, TV programs, casual conversations. Consider now, how much you actually think of the meaning beyond the word, but more than the simple meaning, how much you actually think of the human beings who migrate in today’s globalized world. In this workshop, we are going to learn how to pay attention to and understand images of migration critically. We will look at images of migration that can be found on newspapers, social media, on tv, and on NGO poster campaigns and discuss how they are framed and built to trigger certain emotions into us viewers. What stories do images of migration tell us? What emotions do they want to trigger in us? How can we understand them critically and go beyond our immediate affective reaction to them? These are some of the questions we are going to answer during the workshop.

Ultrasound
(Dr. med Tobias Wowra, Bernd Erkert)
Implementing and practising paediatric ultrasound in low resource settings- benefits and challenges
An interactive workshop with special insights  into the state of the art from Malawi and Nepal.

FRIDAY

Get-together

Join us to unwind and connect in a relaxed atmosphere with a standing buffet, included in your conference fee.
Please let us know during the conference sign up if you plan to attend.

SATURDAY

Social Evening

Look forward to a special evening! The participation fee is 40 € (regular) or 20 € (for students). The fee includes the program, a shared dinner, as well as soft drinks and hot beverages until 10 pm. Alcoholic drinks are not included. After 10 pm, drinks can be purchased at your own expense.

Please register as soon as possible during the conference sign-up.

Late registrations are possible by email until April 28, 2025, at gtp2025anmeldung@globalchildhealth.de.

Campus map 

The content of this event is designed to be neutral with respect to commercial products and services. We confirm that the scientific leadership and speakers disclose any potential conflicts of interest to the participants. There is no corporate sponsorship of the event. The German Research Foundation (DFG) is supporting the annual meeting with up to €26,400 (DFG project number: 562367488). The total costs of the event amount to approximately €48,000.