Enoch A. Pambour (PHD)

Enoch A. Pambour, Ph.D is a Community Health Services Manager at Sun Country Health Region in Saskatchewan, Canada. Enoch obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences at Northern Caribbean University in Jamaica, Bachelor of Science in Nursing (Honors) degree at York University in Canada. In addition, Enoch holds Master of Business Administration degree from Nova Southeastern University and Master of Science in Educational Leadership degree from Central Connecticut State University, both in U. S. A. and a doctorate in Community and Population Health Science from University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

Enoch is passionate about women’s and children’s health, health systems audit/improvement, social determinants of health, social justice, health policy, and health administration. On March 9, 2015 Enoch participated in round-table discussions of Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research workshop titled “Gathering Perspectives: Dialogue on the role of research in a Canadian vision for global health”. Workshop discussions focused on global health research principles, ethics, barriers in global health research and review of documents. Similarly, on September 14 & 15, 2015 Enoch facilitated round-table discussions and prepared report for the coordinator of a workshop in Saskatoon titled “Saskatchewan Strategy for Patient Oriented Research- Primary & Integrated Health Care Initiative: Linking Policy and Research in Primary Health Care”.

Enoch’s doctoral research explored women’s experiences and perceptions of childbirth in two rural settings in Ethiopia. In 2014, Enoch was contracted as a consultant to Ethio-CanadaMaternal, Newborn and Child Health Project. Enoch’s consultancy involved collecting baseline data on Ethiopia’s maternal and child health, data analyses, report writing, and making recommendations to Ethio-Canada Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Project to improve women’s and children’s health in Ethiopia. The consultancy offered Enoch the opportunity to interview directors and frontline health professionals in various government offices and health facilities in Ethiopia. In addition, Enoch had joint meetings with Ethio-Canada Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Project leaders and government officials in Ethiopia to discuss project direction. Enoch’s research experiences in Ethiopia have ignited a passion in him to engage governments, civil society, academics, research institutions and industry in a fight against unacceptable women’s and children’s morbidity and mortality in Africa.

Susan Langmagne (PHD)

Susan Langmagne was born in Ghana and obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Sociology from the University of Ghana. She received her doctorate in Sociology from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, in 2016. Her Ph.D. dissertation lies at the intersection of globalization, gender, and health. Her area of specialization is Sociology of Development, focusing on migration and health, families, gender relation and social inequality, gender and development, human trafficking and HIV/AIDS, globalization and social justice’ and qualitative research methods. She is also very much interested in public Sociology as she believes in engaging her community by bringing her academic knowledge to impact her constituents. Susan has taught in the Department of Sociology at the University of Saskatchewan and St. Thomas More College, both in Canada. Susan has a broad knowledge of women’s human rights issues, including reproductive rights and domestic violence. She has experience in gender training, empowerment counseling survivors of intimate partner violence, and community-based participatory research(CBPR). She has been involved in training and CBPR with People Living with HIV/AIDS and service providers in the Manya Krobo area in the Eastern region of Ghana.

Olivia London

Olivia London, obtained her Bachelors of Science degree from Ryerson University. She is a Registered Nurse with a Masters of Public Health from Lakehead University with a focus on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. She has thirteen years of nursing experience in various health sectors, including acute care settings, community health promotion, and health education in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Congestive Heart Failure.She is passionate about the development of Health Promotion Strategies and program planning for marginalized populations. She has a great interest in the areas of Diabetes Management, Cardiac health, Cancer Prevention, Smoking Cessation, and Healthy Lifestyle changes across the lifespan. Olivia is passionate about Health Promotion across the lifespan but has a special interest in the area where chronic disease intersects with maternal health. She understands that a healthy pregnancy starts before conception with a mother’s baseline health, lifestyle habits, and the effective management of chronic conditions, including hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and mental health.

Olivia has extensive experience developing individualized care plans and specific populations with the tools necessary to achieve optimum health.

Patrick Mwesigye Sewa

Patrick Mwesigye Sewa hails from Uganda and is the Founder and Team Leader at the Uganda Youth and Adolescents Health Forum (UYAHF), a youth-led and youth-serving organization that advocates for and empowers adolescents girls and young women to live a quality life in which they can realize their full potential with dignity through health service access and peer-to-peer referral and linkage.Patrick is a fellow of the Safe Mothers and Newborns Leadership Workshop hosted by the Maternal Health Task Force at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, and the Aghakhan University of East Africa. He is also a fellow of the Clinton International Summer School on Peace Conflict Resolutions and Entrepreneurship at Ulster University in Northern Ireland. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Management from Makerere University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Environmental Management from Galilee International Management Institute in Israel.

Patrick is a founding member of the Adolescents and Youth Constituency (AYC) of the Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health and a board member representing AYC. Patrick has recently served on various global youth advisory panels of important processes, including; the Global Youth Advisory Panel for the July 2017 London Family Planning Summit and the Global Youth Council of the Global Adolescent Health Conference of the Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health. Patrick is also an official Global Torchbearer for the SheDecides Movement and Vice President of the Africa Youth and Adolescents Network on Population and Development (AfriYAN East and Southern Africa).

Community Engagement and Advocacy Director, Canada
Patrick has spoken at several national regional and internal conferences, including, amongst others, side events at the 71st United Nations General Assembly in New York in 2016. Patrick has also worked with community support groups of women and young people, school clubs, and local community leader within Uganda to develop skills and knowledge to prevent mismanagement of gender-based issues whilst advocating for enhancement of gender equality, women’s rights, and campaigning to eliminate harmful practices such as child marriage, female genital mutilation, and teenage pregnancy.

Patrick has closely worked with the Ugandan government to advocate for meaningful youth participation and increased political prioritization and investment in adolescent health and wellbeing and maternal and child health. He is a member of the National Adolescent Health Technical working group in Uganda, hosted by the Ministry of Health, and is also a member of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for the East and Southern African Commitments on Scaling Up Access to Comprehensive Sexuality Education Youth-Friendly Services. He is a member of the Youth Advisory Panel for the United Nations Population Fund East and Southern African Region Office, he is also a member of the steering committee of the Uganda CSO Coalition on Maternal Newborn and Child Health, and he also sits on the Uganda Civil Society Core Reference Group for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Aychiluhim D. Mitiku

Aychiluhim is a Maternal Prenatal and Neonatal Health National Consultant for WHO Ethiopia Country office. He is a public health specialist who obtained a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Addis Ababa University and a Master of Public Health from the University of Gondar.He worked for more than 19 years on Maternal Neonatal Child and Adolescent Health, Emergency Response and Management, Primary Health Care, HIV/AIDS Prevention & Control, and Epidemiology/ Surveillance in various organizations such as the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, African Medical and Research Foundation, Catholic Relief Services and WHO and ACF in different countries like Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Northern Africa and Middle East funded by WHO, USAID and The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).

Mr. Aychiluhim has extensive experience in project development, monitoring, and evaluation in Ethiopia and Sierra Leone, where the highest Maternal and Neonatal mortality rate. In addition, he has tremendous research experience and coordinated various baseline and evaluation surveys related to maternal and child health, primary health care, HIV/AIDS prevention care, and support, water hygiene, and sanitation with different organizations such as CCRDA, AMREF, Save the Children International, and WHO Sierra Leone Country Program.

He also worked as a consultant, team leader, and technical officer in different countries allowed him to have a thorough understanding of the maternal, neonatal, and child health program, global commitments, strategies, evidence-based priority interventions, global challenges, and areas of improvement.

Oliva BAZIRETE

Ms. Oliva BAZIRETE is a registered midwife, PhD student, and currently an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Rwanda, College of Medicine and Health Sciences in the Midwifery department. She is involved in developing and delivering modules to be taught to midwifery students. She has coordinated the bachelor’s degree program of midwifery for the last 2 years. For the last 3 years, she worked as a focal person of the blended learning program providing in-service training for nurses and Midwives of Rwanda’s southern province about maternal and newborn health-related issues.The program is founded by the Health Foundation partner of the College of Medicine and Health Sciences. She is also the focal person of UNFPA- Rwanda in the midwifery department – College of Medicine and Health Sciences.

She is a member of the College Teaching and Learning Committee. She obtained her Master’s degree in nursing, stream Advanced Midwifery and Neonatology from the University of the Western Cape in the Republic of South Africa; she completed her bachelor’s degree in Nursing education and her midwifery training from the University of Rwanda. She is working for the University of Rwanda since 2003. Her previous professional experience includes Clinical practice in Maternity within hospital and Health center settings. She attended and had oral presentations in different regional and international conferences focusing on Nursing education and midwifery.

George Nkhoma

George Nkhoma has spent his entire 5-year career in Chitipa district (Rural Malawi), working passionately as a bedside midwife and manager at Chitipa district hospital. His interest in midwifery emanates from his birth experience, born from a mother who lost her life giving birth to him.George Nkhoma graduated from Mzuzu University in 2013 and went straight into practice as a midwife. He joined Chitipa district hospital in May 2013 and was appointed unit manager for the Maternity department in July 2013 after convincing the hospital management team of his management and leadership potential. In September 2013, he was interviewed for the post of district safe motherhood coordinator and was successful, and he serves in this position to date.

In March 2014, he was voted the best midwife manager for the district following attainment of excellent standards in maternity infection prevention national assessment when Chitipa district hospital maternity department scored 100% in this assessment. His enthusiasm and record in midwifery broke beyond district borders in August 2014 when he was voted regional coordinator (north) for the Association of Malawian Midwives (AMAMI) at a national annual general meeting for midwives in Malawi.

In March 2015, he was nominated by the Association of Malawian Midwives (AMAMI) to attend a reproductive health and rights advocacy meeting in Kampala, Uganda. In November 2015, he was also nominated by Commonwealth to attend the Heads of Governments meeting in Malta, following his efforts to advocate against early and forced marriages. In 2016, he was nominated as best midwife manager in Malawi by the White Ribbon Alliance and attended the United Nations general assembly in New York.

He advocated for establishing a Nursery unit in 2014 at Chitipa district hospital and developed a proposal for this project, which was funded by Peach Tree Presbyterian Church. This project has reduced the deaths of newborn babies by half by July 2016.
George likes working with pregnant women and newborns and takes pride in saving lives. This passion for mothers and newborns connected him to White Ribbon Alliance for safe motherhood Malawi (WRASM) in 2014 when the alliance implemented community sensitization meetings in the district. He has worked with WRASM in different activities both at the district and national levels and of late got trained as a citizen midwife journalist in July 2016 by WRASM. George is 28 years old, single, and Malawian by nationality. He aspires to progress in a midwifery career and contribute significantly to maternal and newborn health policies in the profession.

Bupe Mwamba

Bupe is the Co-founder of Newborn Support Zambia (NSZ)). The society was founded in 2015 by the Neonatologist (Dr. Kunda Mutesu-Kapembwa and the Neonatal Nurse (Bupe Mwamba). It has ten board members comprising of Zambian Paediatricians, most of them working in the Government and Members of Zambia Paediatric Association (ZPA) and Zambia Medical Association (ZMA), Midwives belonging to Midwives Association of Zambia (MAZ) and Zambia Union of Nursing Organization (ZUNO). In addition, the board of directors includes the Neonatal Nurse, who has a degree in Midwifery and Neonatal Science, and she is also the Country Representative for the Council of International Neonatal Nurses, a Neonatologist, and a Pastor representing the community. Newborn Support Zambia, is a not for profit society whose goal is to improve newborn care in government hospital units in partnership with the Ministry of Health and other cooperating partners.The goal is to standardize neonatal care by introducing standard protocols and algorithms on neonatal care for both nurses and doctors throughout Zambia. As the NSZ, we are working towards standardization of the quality of Newborn Care throughout the country. In this regard, your support with the implementation of set standards and quality assurance will be appreciated as we work towards reducing Neonatal Mortality from the current 24/1000 live births to 12/1000 by 2030.

Bupe Mwamba is a Zambian Nurse Midwife with a Degree in Midwifery and Neonatal Science. She has a vision of being the change people want to see in Maternal and Child Health. Bupe has had three awards in three years. The first award was the 2015 Midwife for life award for implementing delayed cord clamping in Zambia’s seven midwifery schools. This was implemented in March 2016 in eight institutions, including University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, Chikakanta, Monze, Katete, Chipata, Chilonga, Chingola, and Roan. The second award was the 2016 American College of Nurse-Midwife (ACNM) Bonnie Westenberg Pedersen International Midwife Award, which is an award given in memory of Bonnie Pedersen CNM to enable an outstanding international midwife to attend the ACNM Annual Meeting as our honored guest. This award recognizes the awardee’s exemplary leadership in advancing maternal and child health and midwifery, thereby assuring safe births for mothers and babies in their home country.

In 2012, Bupe Mwamba’s natural inclination to leadership was noted, and she was selected to participate in a leadership course at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. She was taught how to consider her professional goals and aspirations and write her own leadership development plan. Her decision to conduct an annual review and update of her plan has helped Bupe stay current and move forward always with her objectives in mind.
Bupe’s goals are well focused and have long included improving newborn care administered by midwives, nurses, and physicians at the time of birth. She understands clearly the many challenges and what education and skills are needed at different levels such that all providing care to newborns will have a much better foundation and resources upon which to base their decisions.

However, the current state of affairs made it necessary for Bupe Mwamba to do higher-level study outside of Zambia. In the course of her studies, Bupe has developed a large regional network of healthcare leaders. She was elected as the University of Cape Town student to attend a research dissemination workshop on Maternal and Child Health in Lilongwe, Malawi, in July 2015. Her activities with the Council of International Neonatal Nurses have led to her becoming the national representative of the organization, and it was in this capacity that she had an observer seat at the 17th Partnership for Maternal Neonatal and Child Health Board Meeting, which took place in her home country.

Bupe intends to be teaching in Zambia after she completes her research work and her post-graduate degree. From there, it is easy to see her driving the development of a higher level of education and training for midwives in Zambia while drawing on the contacts she has developed in her young career to date. We have to spread the word. ” Ms. Mwamba has recently been working with the Zambian Ministry of Health and the Zambian General Nursing Council as she proceeds to implement a series of presentations on the timing of umbilical cord clamping.

Echong Silvia Taku

Echong Silvia Taku obtained a Bachelor’s degree and a Higher Professional Diploma in Medical Laboratory Sciences from the Catholic University of Central Africa Yaounde-Cameroon and St Louis University Institute of Health and Biomedical Sciences Bamenda-Cameroon, respectively. She proceeded to work as a clinical laboratory technician at St John of God Integrated Health Center Batibo. She believes every mother deserves a healthy baby, and every baby deserves a healthy mother. With a passion for promoting mother and child health, she volunteered with Giftedmom, a non-governmental organization working to stop/reduce maternal/neonatal mortality in Cameroon. Grateful for the love and support from family and an amazing group of friends, she enjoys listening to music and traveling in her free time. Her core value is fairness.