Thanks to a partnership between Simon Fraser University and the Indo-Canadian Friendship Society of BC, life in the Indian village of Brahampur will get a little better.

The two Canadian entities have partnered with the Village Life Improvement Foundation of Chandigarh to allow SFU students to take part in service learning, cooperative education and volunteer service programs to benefit the village.

During the two-year pilot project, the students will focus on using computers in learning, health promotion and education.

SFU is the first Canadian university to sign an agreement that will help India produce research pioneers and professionals in public health. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is one of three agreements that SFU President Michael Stevenson signed with Indian institutions during his recent trip to India with Premier Gordon Campbell and 60 B.C. post-secondary representatives.

The landmark MoU is with the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), a publicly and privately funded organization that is developing seven Institutes of Public Health in India (IIPHs).

With $50 million from the Bill Gates Foundation, the PHFI is partnering with universities worldwide to train future faculty for the institutes. Other institutions that have signed the MoU include Johns Hopkins University, Emory University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“It’s an opportunity for SFU to participate in an international partnership that will see our masters of public health students get practical training and our faculty develop collaborative research programs in India,” says Stevenson.

SFU will also collaborate with the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology and various biotech entities in the area of bioinformatics and infectious diseases.- With additional information from SFU.