Experts believe that what a person wants to achieve is easier when s/he puts in the effort and strives to do things that enable them to achieve their goals. 

Bashar Abubakar, a Nigerian who graduated from the UGHE’s Master of Science in Global Health Delivery (MGHD) Program is a good example that enlightens the steps one must take to move from one level to another. 

Dr. Bashar has been doing Clinical and Public Health works before turning his attention to raising awareness on the Public Health challenges through the reporting. 

 During the time when he was practicing clinical and public health, he said, he got first-hand experience of what it was like to provide care in resource constraint settings, and the challenges mitigating against accessing and delivering quality health care to the people. 

At the time, he said, “I heard about how a new global health institution in Rwanda was training young health professionals like myself to improve health systems across the world, especially in Africa.” 

“I knew UGHE was the right place for me to learn, build networks and contribute to shaping the health systems that serve everyone. Health systems that are responsive to the needs of all, regardless of who they are, where they are from, or their socioeconomic status.” Bashar added. 

Since graduation from UGHE’s MGHD, Health Management Option class of 2021, Dr. Bashar is working as a health journalist with Nigeria Health Watch and Research Associate at EpiAFRIC.  

“My work includes researching and reporting on the good practices as well as the bad ones in the African health systems, managing community projects and coordinating research, assessments and evaluations”.

Dr. Bashar’s current role is one of the most important in the modern world where journalism is concerned with specialized reporting in a particular sector in order to produce science-backed contents that are helpful to the decision-makers. 

Being familiar with the sector, Dr. Bashar has been able to write and publish numerous articles on the impact of the work of individuals, organizations and governments in ensuring healthcare delivery to especially people in the grassroots, and responses to global health challenges like Polio, Covid-19, Cholera, Malnutrition, and Maternal and Child complications. 

The knowledge acquired throughout the time he spent at UGHE has enabled him to advance his career especially in writing about leadership articles on different health issues, especially primary healthcare challenges. 

“The skills and experience I gained from UGHE helped me in initiating and designing the Community Health Watch project. My thought of initiating the project was inspired by the principles of global health equity course in the first semester of my MGHD program.” He revealed. 

Apart from having successfully managed the Community Health Watch project, under which they monitor and report on the access and delivery of healthcare services in rural communities, Dr. Bashar and his team have been also conducting many townhall engagements in rural communities and published close to 20 reports from various communities. 

“Reporting on challenges faced by especially people in hard-to-reach communities, and people with low socioeconomic status brings to the fore what they go through to get healthcare, and to avoid complications. It also highlights how some initiatives, sometimes simple, are improving the lives of people.” He said 

 In addition, Dr. Bashar added that reporting about public health concerns is also a way to show policymakers and all stakeholders how their actions or inactions are causing suffering to the people they serve. 

“The research I have been working on identifies the gaps in the effective delivery of healthcare shows what is lacking and provides recommendations for improvements.” He explained. 

 Today, Dr. Bashar is leading on several research works including the assessment of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene services in primary healthcare centers in states across Nigeria. 

They also help organizations and governments in planning interventions and setting and implementing policies and programs to ensure equitable healthcare delivery in Nigeria. 

“The research, monitoring, and evaluation skills I gained are helping me in the various assessments and evaluations I have been working on since I graduated. The skills I learned in qualitative research are improving my data collection work for both my articles and assessments.”