Celestina Obiekea is a ONE Champion alumni and consultant with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
Celestina Obiekea has seen first hand the impacts of COVID-19, working as the laboratory network advisor at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
She wants all Nigerians to know the pandemic is real:
“While a lot of people will likely get infected and recover without even so much as a headache, there’s no magic wand to tell who will survive and who will not, and at...
Health
Google the words “African Union” and you will find two out of the four top questions are “What is the purpose of the African Union?” and “Why was the African Union formed?” The answers? The African Union (AU) was formed for times like these – a global moment that requires global collaboration. The AU was formed to increase cooperation and integration of African states to drive Africa’s growth and economic development.
With a crisis of a century such as the...
Agnes Kalibata is the UN’s special envoy for the Food System’s Summit and president of AGRA (Growing Africa’s Agriculture). We interviewed her as as part of our #PassTheMic series.
Here’s some of what she had to say in the interview.
This is probably the first time that mankind has had one common enemy in the last 100 years. It’s not a one person, one country, or one continent problem. It’s a global problem that we have to deal with together.
Coronavirus has...
Dr. Joannie Bewa is a public health researcher and women and girls activist. We interviewed her as part of our #PassTheMic series. Here’s some of what she had to say.
When it comes to women and girls during COVID-19 there are a lot of challenges, related to both health and non-health issues.
I’m seeing many things through a gender perspective, which is lacking on several levels. The first thing lacking is the acknowledgement that women are a large part of the...
Dr. Bonaventura Clotet is the director and president of Fundació Lluita contra la Sida (Fight against AIDS Foundation). We interview Dr. Clotet as part of our #PassTheMic campaign.
Here’s some of what he had to say.
This is a virus that recombines significantly, which is why it became even more contagious. So we need to design a new strategy that can cope with all these variations and mutations.
I think what’s very important these days is that we move forward to set...
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala is chair of the GAVI board and the former finance minister of Nigeria. Danai Gurira interviewed Dr. Okonjo-Iweala as part of our #PassTheMic series.
Here’s some of what she had to say.
This pandemic has made the world wake up to interconnectedness — how we are so interconnected that people in a remote area in one country are connected to a remote area in another country.
What that says to me is that no one in the world...
Dr. Craig Spencer works in an emergency department in charge of its global health programme and is on the board of directors of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). We interviewed Dr. Spencer as part of our #PassTheMic series.
Here’s some of what he had to say.
We’re not safe until this virus is controlled everywhere, whether it’s in Alabama or Burundi.
I recognize that for us in the US, the acute focus needs to be on our preparation and saving lives...
Dr. Jen Kates is senior vice president and director of global health & HIV policy at The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Actress Connie Britton interviewed Dr. Kates as part of our #PassTheMic series.
Here’s some of what she had to say.
One of the ongoing challenges that comes up again and again, whether you’re talking about testing capacity, supplies, or what’s going to happen when there’s a vaccine, is this tendency for everyone to pull inward and not realize...
David Anderson is director of quality and infection prevention and control at Nightingale Hospital in Manchester, UK. He is a frontline nurse and humanitarian health advisor with UK-Med. He worked in Sierra Leone in 2014 during the Ebola epidemic. We interviewed David as part of our #PassTheMic series.
Here’s some of what he had to say.
If you had an absolutely coordinated global response to coronavirus, one of the beauties would be that you’d have greater control. We would have a...
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is the former president of Liberia. We interviewed President Johnson-Sirleaf as part of our #PassTheMic series.
Here’s some of what she had to say.
Reflecting on our experience of dealing with Ebola, we know that a coordinated global response to COVID-19 is important. Isolation in close quarters, internally or internationally, cannot be achieved in this interconnected world of travel and communication.
This was made very evident to us in our Liberian experience. Restraining the movement of people on international...