Nzeribe Emmanuella
Ghana
Pharmaceutical Graduate
Nzeribe Emmanuella is a recent graduate of the PharmD program in Kwame Nkrumah University, Ghana. She has a lot of interests in Research and Development in the areas of Tropical Diseases, climate change and Global health.
She has some of her research articles published in different peer review journals. Her abstracts have been presented at conferences including the International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation Congress, International Congress of Infectious diseases, amongst others. She is a great leader who has volunteered for several organizations and in the long run, looks forward to becoming a research scientist with a major focus on NTDs.
What inspired you to enter the World NTD Day Story telling competition?
There was a story that needed to be told; how NTDs though neglected for some time now are no longer and ought not to be neglected anymore because the number of infections keep increasing by the day. The medicines to solve these problems are not always available, although some of the diseases can easily be prevented, like Podoconiosis. These diseases mostly affect the poor, and for us to keep working at achieving Universal Health Coverage, they need to be tackled. Seeking all outlets to join in the campaign, I was thankful for and saw this as another great opportunity to keep on in that regard.
Why does fighting NTDs matter to you?
Fighting NTDs means achieving UHC to me. Knowing that I was part of a journey towards the total eradication of a global canker is a major achievement and life-fulfilling task for me, knowing that in my generation, I reached out to the poor and helped make some global impact from my own small contribution.
How do you intend on continuing the fight against NTDs after this competition?
My intentions are to continue with what I have always been doing. To keep sensitizing the general public and stakeholders about the dangers of relenting on the fight against NTDs. And also to continue mobilizing and sensitizing my fellow youth to promote the awareness and need to fight towards the eradication and against the stigmatization of people with NTDs.
What would be your request to your country’s leaders regarding fighting NTDs?
My request to my country leaders would be to pay more attention to the need to fight NTDs, invest more resources into such areas as drug and vaccine research, collaboration with related institutions and bodies, and the creation of more awareness on the subject matter; this can be done through the encouragement of the youth to go into advocacy.
