Introducing GHC's Africa Fellows, July 2023
Join us in welcoming 46 rising health equity leaders from across Sub-Saharan to our community!
We selected these rising leaders for their leadership potential and their commitment to advancing health equity.
They’re collectively diverse and bring a wide range of perspectives and experiences to the GHC movement. And they’re the inaugural cohort in our newly expanded Africa regional model!
- 41% are new to the field of global health.
- 59% identify as female & 41% as male.
- They hail from nine countries and speak 19 languages.
They’ll be placed within 21 global health organizations and institutions in Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia, including:
We’ll support them as they learn from each other, build critical leadership skills, join our lifelong global community, and continue driving change within their organizations.
Through the 13-month program, GHC will provide fellows with access to:
Biniam Teshome
Quality Improvement Officer, Ministry of Health—Malawi
Biniam’s passion for public health emerged when he was working as a general practitioner for a rural hospital in his home country of Ethiopia. The hospital was experiencing a high rate of stillbirths and Biniam and a colleague set out to lower these numbers by improving the community-level referral system. This realization of the impact of taking a public health approach to medical issued led Biniam to apply to GHC. As a fellow within Malawi’s Ministry of Health, he is excited to learn from the country’s effective solutions to close health systems gaps and apply them in Ethiopia.
“Health status cannot be achieved overnight” is the realization that launched Faith Chebet into a career in community health and advocacy. Faith recognizes that an effective public health system is the result of many actors’ efforts including public health officials, individuals, and communities. She hopes to see her home country, Uganda, become a country that embodies empowerment and knowledge about health. She is looks forward to developing her skills, growing her network, and living out the principles of integrity, insight, and inclusiveness as a GHC fellow.
Faith Chebet
Community Health Program Officer, Ministry of Health–Uganda
Jessie Mphande
Research Coordination and Grants Officer, National Health Research Authority—Zambia
Led by a passion for research, Jessie sees strengthening public health as key to creating a more equitable society. She believes in the power of connecting policymakers directly to communities and challenges to inform evidence-based approaches to health in her native Malawi. Jessie is excited to keep learning and contributing as a fellow at Zambia’s National Health Research Authority, guided by Mary Lou Anderson’s words: “Leaders are called to stand in that lonely place between the no longer and the not yet and intentionally make decisions that will bind, forge, move and create history.”
The tragic death of Farrukh’s four-month-old cousin due to untreated postpartum mental illness was the driving force behind his entrance into the public health sector. Witnessing the consequences of inadequate health education and promotion ignited Farrukh’s deep passion for public health. As a Public Health Officer at Rwanda’s Ministry of Health, Farrukh is excited to develop community-based mental health programs that he can take back to his home country of Ghana.
Farrukh Saah
Public Health Officer, Ministry of Health–Rwanda