Redefining national and regional views on health

ABSTRACT

The Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation (WINDREF) was founded in 1994 in Grenada, West Indies, to develop worldwide multi-diciplinary research and education programmes that would advance the understanding of health and the environment. The WINDREF resource centre coordinates international collaborative research in the areas of medicine, veterinary medicine, anthropology, marine and terrestrial biology, and ethics. Offering academic opportunities to scientists from the Caribbean and around the world, it encourages the development of the understanding of local and international communities. It believes in the sharing of relevant scientific information with these communities. WINDREF's emphasis on internationalism and its commitment to community service and participation makes it unique among most developing and developed countries' research institutions. In the past six years, WINDREF has covered an impressive list of projects, ranging from non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and alcoholism, to communicable diseases including HIV/AIDS, dengue fever, and nutritional parasites. Work has also focused on the use of medicinal plants and studies of the Mona monkey population. WINDREF has played a role in both undergraduate and graduate education and has established and maintained wide Caribbean and international collaboration and links (AU)