Partner Focus Area: -Obesity

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.

Madan Raj Bhatt

Madan Raj Bhatt has more than 10 years of experience in Family planning (FP), Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health (MCH). He has involved in designing, implementing and monitoring of MCH and FP and HIV services from both Governments and NGO run Expanded Integrated Health Service (EIHS) sites in coordination with government line agencies and local NGO partners through USAID-funded and other projects. Some of his key expertise area are FP/Integration, MCH, Reproductive Health and Nutrition. He has been Conducting technical update sessions on FP, writing technical papers, sharing the latest update on FP and documenting the FP related activities. Currently, he has been working in USAID-funded Suaahara II Good Nutrition Project to provide technical assistance on FP and also involved in monitoring US abortion and FP requirements.