Welcome back! We look forward to continuing to have you join us on our mission of seeing more and more African women researchers impacting Africa and building a more sustainable and inclusive future for our promising continent.
In this issue, we share with you a snapshot of what 2024 promises, as well as a highlight reel of our accomplishments in 2023.
We are also excited to introduce to you a new section of the newsletter of "Beyond the Fellowship: Research to Impact" highlighting where members of our Connects Network (alumni network) are beyond their PhD studies.
We are always looking for more opportunities to collaborate and build further partnerships that can support us to deliver on our mission. Please continue to show your support by donating or contacting us if you are from a funding organisation who sees alignment in our mission to see more African women researchers discover impactful local solutions to regional and global development problems.
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The Best of 2023: Our Year Recap |
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We are happy to present to you a sneak peek of our very innovative and exciting activities in 2024!
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Thandile Gule, 2023 Mawazo Fellow from Eswatini, has been accepted into the World Bank Group Africa Fellowship program, to work as a consultant with the Urban Resilience and Land Development unit in the World Bank’s Vienna office, Austria. The six months programme commenced in January and will be running through to June 2024. Thandile will not only benefit from exposure to research and innovation in multiple sectors, but also work on research, economic policy, technical assistance, and lending operations that contribute to the World Bank’s goals of eliminating poverty and increasing shared prosperity. She is excited about this opportunity and looks forward to learning while providing her technical expertise.
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Loise Nthambi, a 2023 Mawazo Fellow from Kenya, participated as a speaker and presenter in this year's STD/HIV/SRH collaborative research group held in Nairobi Kenya. The annual event which is a joint collaboration between The University of Manitoba (UoM) and University of Nairobi (UoN), has been happening since the 1980s in HIV/STI/SRH research. This is an initiative that has positively impacted health outcomes for Kenyan communities and has been recognized globally as a best practice. The UoM/UoN partnership has resulted in additional collaborations with the University of Toronto and McMaster University among others as well as international collaborations with major academic institutions such as the University of Washington, Oxford University and many others. This year’s event brought together researchers, students, government officials, donors, and other stakeholders to discuss their latest research results, ongoing projects and future plans.
Find photos of the event below:
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Winfred Nanchin, a 2023 Mawazo Fellow from Nigeria, has been offered an exciting opportunity at the Swiss Ornithological Institute in an exchange program under the Schifferli Scholarship. This amazing opportunity runs for 4 months and will enable her to work on her research data with a rich network of experts. The work will involve exploring Atlas data, analysis, and interpretation of results to reach out to relevant stakeholders. From the 4th to 7th December, she attended a training organised by the Tropical Biology Association (TBA) in partnership with the Nigerian Bird Atlas Project (NiBAP) and Kenya Bird Map (KBM) in Lukenya, Kenya. The training was part of the activities under the project “Improved decision making through citizen science data” which is funded by the UK Government through the Darwin Initiative. In addition, she has appeared in a documentary about citizen science where she created awareness on the need for everyone to be involved in environmental stewardship.
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Rehema Gwokwalya, a 2023 Mawazo Fellow from Uganda, got her paper “Cellular and Humoral Immune Responses of Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) (Diptera: Tephritidae) to Fopius arisanus (Sonan) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)” accepted by the Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, and has been invited to give a talk at the 2024 International Congress of Entomology in Japan from 25th to 30th August.
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Mercy Mawia Mulwa, a 2023 Mawazo Fellow from Kenya, has had her first article accepted for publishing without changes. The article titled “GMM-LIME Explainable Machine Learning Model for interpreting Sensor Based Human Gait’ will be published by Wiley's Engineering Reports. Once it has been published, we will share it.
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Dr. Thérèse Umuhoza, 2021 Mawazo Fellow and current Associate Director at Global Public Health and Development, Africa at Holden Fitzgerald published an OpEd in the Rwandan online newspaper Newspaper.Africa on “Why Governments must chart [a] course on tackling emerging disease threats”. The article centers Dr. Thérèse’s expertise as an epidemiologist as she forecasts African governments response to future epidemics.
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Dr. Peace Uwambaye, 2021 Mawazo Fellow and Senior Lecturer at University of Rwanda’s College of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Dentistry, published an OpEd in Newspaper.Africa, a Rwandan online newspaper. Dr. Peace’s article, “Oral Health affects overall health, and should not take a backseat,” calls attention to Africa’s worrying state of oral healthcare and stresses the importance of research as a means to plan and conduct methods of intervention.
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We are excited to announce that two of Mawazo’s 2021 Fellows have published two articles in reputable journals.
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Evaline Chepng’etich |
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In her paper titled Understanding the indicators of adaptive capacity measurements among the Asals smallholder livestock farmers in Kenya, Evaline underscores the importance of understanding the adaptive capacity of farmers when considering effective policy interventions especially among the smallholder farmers in Sub Saharan Africa. She highly recommends purpose-driven policy initiatives especially in training of Climate Smart Agricultural practices to enhance sustainable adaptive capacity through efficient adaptation.
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Elizabeth Ndunge Mutua |
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In her paper titled Symptomatic Characteristics and Screening of Retinopathy of Prematurity: A Systematic Review Elizabeth assesses how Deep Learning systems can effectively be applied to assist ophthalmologists in accurately diagnosing Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), a retina vascular disorder which affects infants. But this can only happen if proper testing systems are put in place. The information in this review is critical in guiding future studies on ROP disease screening in Africa as well as pointing out the challenges of Deep Learning systems for the disease diagnosis.
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The Mawazo Institute has now been supporting Fellows since 2018, and the network of African women researchers we have created just crossed the 90 mark. Through our Connects Network, we continue to engage and support all the women who have gone through our Fellowship Programme. To illustrate the impactful work of our researchers, we will be spotlighting two women among our Fellows in every newsletter:
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Dr. Marilyn Ronoh (2018 Mawazo Fellow) |
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Dr. Marilyn Ronoh is among the pioneering Fellows. When she first came into our orbit as a 2018 Mawazo Fellow, her passion in educating Kenyan youth on HIV/AIDS was apparent, especially at a time when an alarming increase of the disease amongst that demographic had been reported. As a member of our first cohort of Fellows, Dr. Marilyn has continued to engage with Mawazo as a TA in our MLEx courses for the 2021 and 2023 Fellows. She has also appeared as a guest speaker at Mawazo events including the HIV/AIDS themed Nairobi Ideas Night in December 2023 and the September 2022 Webinar “Bridging the Gender Gap for Women in Research”.
Upon graduating with a PhD in Applied Mathematics in 2021, Dr. Ronoh set about co-creating an AI chatbot tailored to speak to Kenyan youth in Embu County about HIV, educating them on misinformation, as well as equipping them with necessary resources. In December 2023, she engaged Kenyan media about the Chatbot and expounding how its use could help decrease HIV/AIDS rates among youth. She has also held conversations with the Ministry of Health on the possibility of adopting the Chatbot at the County and national level. Undoubtedly, we expect to hear more about Dr. Marilyn’s project in 2024.
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Dr. Cynthia Ange Umuhire (2021 Mawazo Fellow) |
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Dr. Cynthia Umuhire, a 2021 cohort Mawazo Fellow, formed part of our first group of non-Kenyan Fellows. Her ambitious and pioneering research made her the first woman in Rwanda to pursue a doctorate in Astronomy/Space Science. Her research study, “Space Science Analysis and Weather and Climate Predictions”, focused on geo-effective phenomena from the Sun’s corona, the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere. She has authored several publications on the topic.
In 2022 Dr. Umuhire was one of 20 African women selected to receive the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science sub-Saharan Africa Young Talents Award. While conducting her research, she worked at the newly established Rwanda Space Agency as a Space Science Analyst, a task which took her to conferences around the world. In the last quarter of 2023, she capped off the year by receiving the Grace Hopper Abie Award. After successfully defending her thesis in January 2024, there is nothing to stop the scientist in her pioneering career path. Her ultimate hope for her career is to promote the applications of space science and technology through the implementation of scientific models in different space sectors to foster socio-economic development on the continent. Space sciences offer a wealth of knowledge that is imperative to further grow Africa’s economies and Dr. Umuhire is set on ensuring that that knowledge becomes more accessible and utilised.
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Mawazo at the Wyss Academy for Nature: changemakers final summit |
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On 18th January, the Mawazo Institute participated in the changemakers final summit in Nanyuki, Kenya organised by the Wyss Academy for Nature. We were invited to this event due to our active role in the sustainable development ecosystem through supporting African women researchers solving the challenges in this region.
The changemakers included 30 young people from Peru, Kenya and Switzerland who had participated in a 6-month changemakers program, an initiative designed to empower and equip youth with the transferable skills and knowledge to drive meaningful change in their communities. They presented their initiatives to guests and partners in the sustainable development ecosystem including the areas of forestry, semi-arid landscapes, food systems among others.
During the ‘hackathon pitches’, teams of ‘changemakers' presented their innovative solutions to challenges facing the local community in Naibunga, Laikipia County. The winning hackathon pitch sought to address youth unemployment and improve soil productivity in the semi-arid region by providing women and young people with semi-circular bunds to grow grass in their homesteads and sell the surplus.
We hope to utilise learning from this event to improve on our fellowship, forge meaningful partnerships to bolster the work of our fellows and alumni and keep up to date with the changemakers innovating in this space particularly on the African continent.
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Mawazo's Culture is Unique |
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Working for Mawazo has been an experience that I haven’t gone through elsewhere in my professional career. The empathy from colleagues and the organisation at large is exemplary and I would choose Mawazo repeatedly. Mawazo has allowed me to be who I am in executing my tasks and this is a place where you feel that your opinions and ideas are valued and welcome.
It's been one and a half years since I joined this amazing organisation with a CEO who not only leads by example, but who is worth emulating. I look forward to continuing working for Mawazo into the foreseeable future and continue to impact positive energy to my colleagues as we endeavour to take Mawazo into the next level.
We continue to scale heights together to bring a noticeable impact into the world at large.
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Relax, Reflect and Rejuvenate! |
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In November 2023, the Mawazo Institute team took to the sandy beaches of Kilifi, Kenya for our staff retreat, geared towards enhancing the rapport between team members, testing the soon to come Connects Extended platform, and catching some downtime from our hectic Nairobi lives.
The team had the pleasure of being hosted in Kilifi and had team building activities and exercises by moderators from OpenCircles. During the period the staff were treated to a relaxing dhow cruise, a seaside dinner, and took time to get to know each other past email signatures and slack profiles. The exercises by the team from OpenCircles allowed staff to be vulnerable with each other and build a sense of new-found comradery.
This exercise also came at an opportune time for the two new additions to the Mawazo team, Aisha and Alvin, as they got to connect with their new colleagues and develop a clearer understanding of how the team works.
Mawazo will remain forever grateful to OpenCircles for showing us how to open our circles and be more empathetic of each other in the workspace. We trust that the open and engaging way we approach and support our Fellows will show for that.
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Support Africa's Next Generation of Change-makers |
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You can help us shape the future of women researchers on the continent by making a donation. No amount is too small – or too big. Make a donation today via debit/credit card, Paypal, or MPESA.
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Spread the word |
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