About Us

The Sub-Sahara Africa FAIMER Institute (SAFRI) is an associate of the US-based Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER). SAFRI was established in 2008 and is based in Cape Town, South Africa. In 2013 SAFRI was incorporated as a not-for-profit company under the South African Companies Act.

The SAFRI Company includes a two-year fellowship program for health professions faculty, a postgraduate diploma in Health Professions Education and Leadership, and the SAFRI online community of practice (o-COP).

We continuously strive to make the SAFRI o-COP a one-stop-shop to strengthen health professions education and research (HPE&R) in sub-Saharan Africa. Our o-COP:

• Serves as a repository of curated content designed to improve HPE&R practice, such as strategic documents (policies, strategies, declarations, reports) and best practice examples;
• Promotes engagement and networking through providing a platform for webinars, discussion forums, marketing of conferences opportunities (including scholarships), and online collaborative whiteboards
• Promotes HPE&R capacity and skills development through providing access to e-learning qualifications and courses, toolkits, etc. Our courses include an automated participant survey to solicit participant feedback as well as a retrospective pre-post survey to determine new knowledge and skills acquired; and
• Promotes sustainability and inter-institutional collaboration by providing access to funding opportunities.