It is my pleasure to send you this bulletin with updates on activities that COPECSA has been engaged with in year 2019.

I am pleased to inform you that after much negotiation and consultative efforts by all the ECSA HC constituent Colleges, the Medical Boards and Councils and Ministries of Health in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi, and Zambia have given us the go-ahead to mount and administer our College exams. The process of determining the accreditation bodies and mechanisms is at various stages but almost completed in the different countries. This marks a landmark accomplishment for our College and also the other Colleges.

In this regard, our first collegiate exam will take place in 2020, and I would like to appreciate the commitment by Professor Lucy Muchiri and her team for leading the examination preparations work.

We also plan to confer fellowships on eligible practicing pathologists during the APECSA 2020 meeting. We call upon all Chairs of Pathology Departments to prepare lists of candidates using the guidelines provided before by COPECSA.

One of our significant achievements for this year was capacity building in cancer diagnosis for 19 pathologists from the ECSA region through our partnerships with African Strategies for Advancing Pathology (ASAP) and The Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi. Our highlight for the year was a pilot elective south to south program sponsored through the-Global Partnership for Educational exchange in Medicine and the Health professions (GEMx). This partnership was made possible by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) and its foundation, the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER), with participation from five universities in the ECSA region offering postgraduate studies in Pathology.

In addition, our College Executive submitted a manuscript to the African Journal of Laboratory Medicine describing the establishment of COPECSA; the manuscript was accepted and is currently in press. We hope this paper will be our advocacy piece giving the College the much-needed visibility.
Last but not least, we have been working hard to ensure that our College website is up and running by 31st January.

We look forward to exciting times ahead for COPECSA and urge you to support the College by making timely payments of your outstanding dues.

We wish you and your loved ones a festive Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!