IWD 2023: Interview Mrs Jeomba Mwakondja Alisa (EPI-Biostat Fellow)
For decades, Africa has faced challenges in responding to public health emergencies. Epidemiological data is often unavailable or severely limited, and there is a shortage of skilled personnel and systems to collect and analyse available data and translate them into policy and practice. To address this capacity gap, EDCTP and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered in a €7.5 million initiative to support institutions in Africa and Europe to boost epidemiological and biostatistical capacity on the African continent through Master’s degree programmes in epidemiology and biostatistics. Ten consortia were selected to provide this ‘EPI-Biostat’ training, comprising 38 African and 8 European institutions. Currently, they are training 151 MSc candidates in epidemiology and biostatistics: 63 females (42%) and 88 males (58%).
For International Women’s Day 2023, we asked one of the EPI-Biostat Fellows, Mrs Jeomba Mwakondja Alisa, how she thinks women can claim their role in science and technology.
What encouraged you to apply for the EPI-Biostat fellowship?
I was encouraged to apply for the EPI-Biostat fellowship by the experiences I had as an environmental health practitioner, which made me realise that to effectively prepare and respond to public health events including emergencies I needed knowledge of epidemiological principles. Being aware of the limitation I had in implementing public health programs, the EPI-Biostat fellowship was a great opportunity to further my studies and gain the much-needed skills.
How do you think women can claim their role and add value to this discipline?
Owing to the fact that women are caretakers and brokers of health for their families, they can play a key role and add value to the field of epidemiology. Firstly, by taking up undergraduate courses in health-related fields and advancing to postgraduate level. Secondly, as women we have to believe in our abilities and competencies and go for the leadership opportunities in this discipline so that we can be part of the decision-making processes. Thirdly women should remember some opportunities come once in a lifetime and you either grab it and grow or you lose it and wait for the next which may or may not come. Personally, when the EPI-Biostat fellowship came along I couldn’t wait for another opportunity and I went for it. May I remind my fellow women that “An empowered woman in any discipline is an empowered community or nation at large”.
We’d like to congratulate you on becoming a mother during your training! How did you manage to combine your training with this major life event, and how did the training institutions support you?
The news of being pregnant and this training opportunity came at same time, and were all wonderful news. But my decision to take up the training opportunity while pregnant came with a myriad of challenges among them: losing my job, fear that the training institution won’t accept me because I was pregnant, uncertainty of whether I was to get medical support in a foreign land and the worry of leaving my family behind.
I would attribute the success of being able to combine the two to the support and facilitation provided by the management of the SCEPRESSA project. I cannot forget the moment my tears flew down when Dr Susan Mambo, the chairperson of the SCEPRESSA’s Executive Board, had a one-on-one chat with me to assure me that all was well and that I was not alone in the journey and had the full support of the University.
I was enrolled for Antenatal care (ANC) at the University Hospital. The university monitored my progress and made adjustments to the schedule of activities in the programme to ensure that I did not miss any classes or examination sessions. My lecturers and colleague EPI-Biostat fellows were very supportive and enthusiastically looked forward to have ‘baby SCEPPRESSA’ join us for class. I would take a 30 minutes break every two hours to breastfeed and come back to class. Looking back, I am happy with the decision I made because the fears and worries have gone and I feel wonderful about everything.