From one of our Alumni – Umar Kabo Idris

My name is Umar Kabo Idris from Kano state, Nigeria. I am a passionate public health professional who is highly interested to be a part of strengthening health systems and closing the wide gap of health inequality in Nigeria. In pursuance of this interest, I was fortunate to work with an NGO that plays a vital role in health systems in northern Nigeria through the use of appropriate technology. My interest grew even bigger while working in many rural areas across various states. After working for almost two years, I thought of getting a masters degree in the field of public health in order to acquire the appropriate research skills and vast knowledge to fulfil the desired passion and achieve my end goal of changing people’s lives in the area of better health services and to also advocate for better health policies. With gratitude to God, that has been achieved as I have just concluded my masters degree program in Public Health from the prestigious University of Salford, Manchester.

During the masters programme time, I thought of a dissertation topic that would fit into what could change or bring in better health policies, add value to our localities particularly with regards to improving the lives of people in my state. I arrived at something to do with technology because from my ideas and those found from research, it is clear that technology is massively used to support many interventions through health systems strengthening in many developing countries. The research looked at the impact of local public health workers using GIS technology for polio vaccination coverage. It was a successful research, in the end we explored on ways the same technology could be used in other local interventions especially now that Nigeria is officially no longer listed as a polio endemic countries. Thereafter, that led us to find out the prevalent diseases that needed more attention and how the technology could be used to support those interventions.

The journey of my passion did not stop at that, my masters research has given me a broad scope of what I love to do. I immediately got the opportunity to apply for an opening of Assistant Project Manager in my second week of coming back. I applied and was called for interview due to my experience of work in the same organization I left for masters last year. Part of the job interview focused on my dissertation findings and it was an easy ride for me. In the end, I can say I got the job and my first task is to be a part finding out how we can use appropriate technology to support the upcoming measles campaign scheduled to take place in the third week of November 2015. I am highly exited and happy to get my masters from a great team of public health in the University of Salford, even more so from my inspiring project supervisor (Anna Cooper). I am also happy that I am on the right track of achieving my aim.