Partner Focus Area: Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health

Gertrude Laryea

I am a 53 year old pharmacist working as the Deputy Director for Pharmaceutical Services at the Accra Metro Health Directorate. Accra Metropolitan area has a population of close to 2,000,000 people. My passion is to work to promote rational use of medicines, particularly antibiotics, in the metropolis. I also want to work to increase spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions (pharmacovigilance) among health workers and residents alike in this catchment area. I am of the strongest conviction that through social and behaviour change communication I can achieve my goal.

Prior to working in the Metro Health Directorate I worked as a pharmacy manager in one of the hospitals in the metropolis- Maamobi General Hospital. Here, among other activities, l offerred adherence counselling and drug information services to clients in the anti-retroviral therapy, diabetic and hypertensive clinics, thereby optimising pharmacotherapy and improving health outcomes.

Educational background
BPharm (Hons) – Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), 1988
MSc Clinical Pharmacy – KNUST, 2015
MA Communication Studies – University of Ghana, 2016
I took a semester’s elective course in Health Communication.

Key Interest
To develop a career in health communication.

Mamadou Diaw

Mamadou is a Senegalese citizen currently serving as the APCD/Health for PC/Senegal. Mamadou has been with PC for 23 years, firstly as APCD/NRM and EE; and starting in 2008, as APCD/Health. Before joining PC, Mamadou worked for 10 years in the field of NRM for USAID and FAO projects. His work included community forestry, agroforestry, community based natural resource management, cartography, land use planning, ecology and land tenure. Mamadou was also an agroforestry trainer for the Senegalese Forest Service.

Mamadou earned a Master’s degree in Forestry Sciences from the University of Florence, Italy, followed by a post university degree in cartography and NRM. Mamadou was also trained in land and tree tenure at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Following his reassignment as APCD/Health, Mamadou undertook short courses in Senegal, France and Israel in nutrition, reproductive health, community health, maternal and child health, and water and health. In 2014, Mamadou earned a Master’s degree in environmental health from the University of Versailles, Paris. Mamadou is currently a PhD candidate from Paris Saclay Human and Social Sciences Doctoral School and has been carrying out a multi-disciplinary research on the factors influencing collective actions in community health.