Utano Public Health Chats
A biweekly podcast where people get to learn more about public health work in Africa and how to navigate their public health careers. First Season kicks off with interviews from different public health practitioners and researchers from different African countries and/or working in African countries in public health.
Episodes

Friday Dec 23, 2022
Friday Dec 23, 2022
Check out our season finale with Dr. Constancia Mavodza , a global and public health (process evaluation) practitioner, with experience in coordination, implementing and evaluating public health projects focusing on HIV/AIDS, SRHR, human resources for health, and AGYW.

Friday Nov 18, 2022
Friday Nov 18, 2022
Who is Chrystal and what does she do?
What led Chrystal to the work she does today?
What Chrystal studied at the undergraduate level and how that led her to public health work
Chrystal’s decision to pursue a Master of Public Health degree (MPH) and what she is focusing on in her program as she is pursuing it (Community Health)
Why Chrystal chose to do the online option for her MPH degree
A day in the life of Chrystal and her roles
Dzidzo safepad initiative: what its about, what motivated it and what work goes into it
Where funding and support for Dzidzo Safepad comes from
Global Changemakers and their support for Dzidzo safepad-https://www.global-changemakers.net/
How long does each pad last?
How they target and decide which schools to work with
What Chrystal enjoys and loves about working on Dzidzo Safepad
Chrystal’s role as a Her Voice ambassador through the Global Fund
How Chrystal defines public health for herself
Importance of equity and inclusivity in public health work and interventions
Word to the wise- advice for young people and people looking to enter the field
Resources and links:
*https://twitter.com/dzidzo_safepad
*https://www.instagram.com/dzidzo_safepad/
* The ecocash number for Dzidzo Safepad donations is +263 772935923

Friday Oct 28, 2022
Friday Oct 28, 2022
In this episode our guest is Sandra Isano a Rwandan pharmacist, Lecturer, and Coordinator for Community Based Education in the Department of Community Health, and Social Medicine at the University of Global Health Equity with over 10 years of experience in the field.
We talked about:
Sandra’s background and the work she does now and where she works
Where Sandra’s journey in public health started, and what she wanted to be when she was younger
How working as a community pharmacist got her interested in patients beyond the treatment and medication they were coming to seek
Her work as a fellow with Global Health Corps
Rwanda’s High School pathway and where people choose to specialize
Which one’s are the community pharmacies?
How and why pharmacies serve as a first line of care and health service delivery
How capacity building at pharmacies can be an additional solution in provided primary care
How pharmacy, GHC fellowship and now her current work as a lecturer doing community community research all inspire and motivate her interests
What her current work at UGHE looks like and includes
Teaching, research and community service
Highlights of some of Sandra’s research projects and outcomes from them
Sandra’s PhD project, and what motivated her to study for a PhD a focus on teen mothers at refugee camps in Rwanda, and what questions and information she will be looking into
Sandra’s favorite thing about working in public health
How Sandra defines public health
Sandra’s least favorite thing about working in public health
Words of advice to those starting out in the public health field and their careers
Love as a public health intervention and the social ecological model!
https://ghcorps.org/ -Global Health Corps website
https://ughe.org/ -University of Global Health Equity website
https://ur.ac.rw/- University of Rwanda website

Friday Oct 07, 2022
Friday Oct 07, 2022
In this episode we chat with Tatenda Diura, a humanitarian worker from Zimbabwe.
We discuss:
A brief introduction of her background, her current work and where she is based, and what she specializes in, in her work
What is safeguarding and how long has she been doing this work?
Her background and journey to public health , what she studied, her internship experience in Zimbabwe
How she found out about public health and how she ended up doing her Masters degree in public health
What influenced her career decisions at every juncture in her journey
How she used resources available to her to search for jobs
How she navigated the catch 22 of jobs requiring experience and experience being gotten through jobs and got her first job after her Master’s degree
How she has leveraged changing organizations and roles to grow in her career
The principle of do not harm and how it is the cornerstone of safeguarding work in humanitarian settings
Examples of the kind of work she does in safeguarding
Behavior Change Communication and how her sociology degree is now relevant in her work
What a survivor centered approach in humanitarian work is and what that looks like
The importance of understanding context in populations that we serve in public health
How heavy humanitarian work can be at times
What Tatenda’s likes the most about the work that she does
What measures are in place in the humanitarian field to ensure that humanitarian workers maintain their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing
Burnout in humanitarian work
The risk of being desensitized doing the work and the importance of rest and unplugging between projects and assignments
The importance of empathy and mot sympathy while doing work
What keeps Tatenda going in the field, even with high turnover rates
What does public health mean for Tatenda
Vulnerable populations that Tatenda works with and how that is defined
Words of wisdom
How Tatenda has used LinkedIn to grow in her career

Friday Sep 23, 2022
Friday Sep 23, 2022
In this episode we hear from Dr. Chido Dziva Chikwari, an Epidemiologist from Zimbabwe about her work and career journey in public health for the past 9 years.
We talked about:
Chido’s current roles and how long she has been doing health research work
Chido’s background and career journey and how she ended up doing the work she does now
How she ended up doing an Master’s degree in Epidemiology and what influenced her choices
The importance of career guidance and the right vocabulary in career decision making
What is an epidemiologist and what do they do?- With examples
The things she likes about working in Epidemiology and research
How she has used her skills to pivot to different program areas over the years
Her research project on increasing access and uptake of HIV testing for children in Zimbabwe that she conducted as part of her PhD
How the findings from her research work became relevant when COVID-19 broke out in 2019
How we are going to make a movie on Chido’s Doctoral research
What are Chido’s top favorite reasons she likes about working in public health research
The value and importance of having a good community of people to work with
What public health means to Chido
For the good of everybody
What good for everyone includes and entails from access, universal health coverage, priority populations, COVID-19 global response
The importance of meeting people where they are in public health interventions eg. COVID-19 vaccines and prevention
Chido’s advice to young people and all people of all ages on career paths
What Chido knows now about the field of public health that wishes she had known or understood earlier
Public Health is a lot of work?
Where is the money in Public health? Is there money in public health work?
Career advice and tips are relevant throughout the lifecourse
Things change, career pivots happen, life happens
Check out https://www.thruzim.org/ for all the research work

Friday Sep 09, 2022
Friday Sep 09, 2022
In this episode we hear from Joy Kamunyori, a digital health and project management professional from Kenya about her 14 year career assessing, developing and implementing public health IT systems in sub-Saharan African countries.
We discussed:
Joy’s background what she studied and how she ended working in public health
How her passion for education and development and skillset landed her in a public health role that started of her career
How she became interested in Computers and eventually chose to study computer science
What she likes and drew her to coding and computer science
How mentorship played a significant role in her career and choices at many junctures
Her experience pursuing graduate studies in Computer Science
What her work looks like now, in scale and range and the kinds of problems she supports solving
How she considers herself an interpreter in her work in digital health and what that looks like
How her roles have changed as her career has progressed in the field
The relationship between Public health, education and development
How Digital Health as a field and use of technology for health started, emerged and has now expanded to be integral in public health systems
Challenges and key considerations for countries as they transition to having fully digital health information systems and how Joy has come across and been part of these conversations
What are Joy’s favorite things about doing her work
What public health means to Joy
Joy’s advice to a younger self
Top 3 skills she recommends to work on in the field

Friday Aug 19, 2022
Friday Aug 19, 2022
In this episode we talked with Will Moyo an Bioengineer from Zimbabwe. Will is the Engineering Innovation Design Studio Manager for Rice 360 Institute for Global Health Technologies.
We discussed:
Will’s background and the kind of work she does now
What is Bioengineering and what training she received to get there
What motivated her to pursue a career in Bioengineering
Invention education and how its used at the Design studios where she works
What are Design Studios and training offered there
What Will does on a day to day basis in her role
The different kind of funders who support their work
The need for support and investment in inventions, innovation and education for long term success “Funding people to fail”
Challenges associated with innovation and global health technologies in an African context
What is Will's favorite part of the work that she does
The value of impactful work and seeing effort come to fruition
What public health means to Will
Everything is Public Health!
Is Will Shuri from Black Panther???
The importance of medical devices and access in public health
The Importance of investing in education for health so as to improve health outcomes
The need to train engineers and technical workforce practically so they know how to work with biomedical equipment in the real world
Other African countries where the model of design studios are currently being implemented
Who makes a good Biomedical engineer?
What it takes and good skills to have in the field
The different kind of stakeholders Will and her students get to work with
Regulation and standardization for medical device design and invention in African countries
Challenges and frustrations from working in education and invention and innovative work in the global health technologies space
How their program was able to generate income for themselves by being innovative at the beginning of the pandemic
What does Will know now, that she wishes she knew earlier
Words of Wisdom
Resource plugs
Tips of reaching out and getting opportunities in the field

Thursday Aug 04, 2022
Thursday Aug 04, 2022
This episode we heard from Dr. Itumeleng Ntatamala, an Occupational Medicine Specialist and Senior Lecturer in the Occupational Medicine Division in the School of Public Health at University of Cape Town’s Faculty of Health Sciences.
We talked about:
Dr. Itumeleng’s background and his current roles
What drew him to medicine, public health and then occupational health
How his interests in clinical care influenced his interest to do public health work
Defining occupational health and occupation medicine and how they sit under public health
The aim of occupational health
What occupational health looks like and the different types of workers and professionals who work in it
Examples of the types of work dealt with in occupational health
How he splits his time between clinical work, public health work, research and teaching
The wide range of patients and medical issues that they see and the different work industries they work with in occupational medicine
Where Dr. Itumeleng finds the most joy and fulfillment in his work
The need for more people to be interested and work in Occupational health, in South Africa and beyond
COVID and its impact on occupational health
Different types of trainings that people can undergo to gain skills in and pivot to start working in occupational health
Why there is not as many people going into the field and being aware that the field of occupational health exists as a career path in public health
Challenges in limited opportunities for training in South Africa and in the region
How he defines public health and what public health means to him
Advice for anyone looking to go into medicine and/or public health
Following your passion and taking it one step at a time
Advice for those that might be interested specifically in pivoting into occupational health
Skills that he has found the most useful
Attending short courses in what you are interested
Reading more about occupational health eg :International Labor Organization ILO https://www.ilo.org/global/lang--en/index.htm
Health & Safety Executive(HSE) https://www.hse.gov.uk/
National Institute of Occupational Health SA (NIOH) https://www.nioh.ac.za/#
and local National Occupational health bodies
Areas that connect to occupational health eg psychology or social work or physiotherapy
Can reach out about programs to him on Linked in or via email at for questions about the field and programs

Friday Jul 22, 2022
Friday Jul 22, 2022
In this episode with Dorcas Kareithi a clinical trials statistician from Kenya currently based in the UK we discussed:
Dorcas’s background and how her love for Math led her to study Applied Statistics
What she calls herself
Dorcas’s love for data, data puns and t shirts with them
All the key steps she took to end up working in health with her skillset
Difference between being a researcher and statistician
What influenced her interest in health from family to books she read growing up
How she ended up working in health after her Bachelor's degree and key steps she took to lead herself there
Mentorship and the role it has played in her career
Different types of mentors
Highlights from her current and previous work
What is her favorite thing about her work and working in public health
What she likes the least about working in public health
Ethics in public health research
Inequalities in healthcare access
The importance of government buy in and will to bridge research findings to policy and implementation
Importance of documenting failures in research
Her top 3 software recommendations
Words of wisdom especially to people looking to have careers in statistics
Her resource plugs:
Young African Statisticians (YASA): https://twitter.com/africanyas
Words that count: https://twitter.com/wordsafrica
RLadies Nairobi: https://twitter.com/rladiesnairobi

Friday Jul 08, 2022
Friday Jul 08, 2022
In this episode we talked with Siyabonga Ndwandwe, a computational health economist from Eswatini currently based in London about his to journey to working in Public health and what it has been like for him. In the episode we discussed:
What is computational health economics and what that entails
His background and motivation to study health economics and work in public health
Using an economic framework, economics principles and tools, to understand health care system and answer and solve health related problems
What type of health data is there, the different sources, who collects it and why?
Privacy , security and the need for regulation of using health data in the world of Big Data
Stakeholders in public health and how they are involved in the work
The kinds of questions being answered in the field of health economics and in Siya’s work
What a typical day, or typical week looks like in his current role
Highlights of different roles and projects that Siya has done in the different roles and countries he has worked in
What public health means to Siyabonga and how he defines it
The Public Health Elephant!
What he likes about Health Systems Research
Siya’s favorite things about working in public health
A little bit of ethics and philosophy of economics in health systems using COVID as an example
Challenges that come with working with data depending on the context
The difference between learning how to work and learning the work
Word to the wise

Your Title
This is the description area. You can write an introduction or add anything you want to tell your audience. This can help potential listeners better understand and become interested in your podcast. Think about what will motivate them to hit the play button. What is your podcast about? What makes it unique? This is your chance to introduce your podcast and grab their attention.