2021 Self-Care Learning and
Discovery Series

Event Description: WASH United, Days for Girls, and MIET Africa in collaboration with the Global Menstrual Collective (GMC) How can supportive self-care environments help to catalyze advancements in menstrual equity? Join leaders and innovators in the field of menstrual health as we explore this question through an interactive session. Looking across the full course of the menstrual cycle and the reproductive life span, we will examine links between self-care and menstrual health through four main lenses: mental wellbeing, physical wellbeing, menstrual materials and products, and education. Each of the four sections will offer learnings from the field about challenges that menstruators face and showcase speakers who are innovating new solutions, both physical and digital. Informational segments will be followed by activities including surveys, videos, brainstorms, and breakout rooms designed to surface new ideas and questions. Through their participation, attendees will contribute to collaborative deliverables that will live beyond the session itself, serving as a basis for advocacy to raise awareness and further explore connections between supportive self care environments and menstrual health.

Event Organizers: WASH United, Days for Girls, and MIET Africa in collaboration with the Global Menstrual Collective (GMC)

Speakers:

Laura Amaya

Event Description: Although self-care for sexual and reproductive (SRH) health has been practiced for many years, new and emerging products are putting self-care within our reach like never before. This dynamic session will explore the landscape of SRH self-use products—from what’s in the development pipeline and regulatory and policy barriers and enablers, to lessons learned from introduction and scale up of self-care products in low- and middle-income countries. Case studies from self-care in HIV and family planning will showcase HIV self-testing and self-injection of subcutaneous DMPA—two areas where evidence has informed implementation and advocacy to strengthen the enabling environment for self-care in recent years. Bring your experiences, ideas, and questions on how we can best design and deliver SRH self-care products that meet user needs and preferences and are accessible in a variety of contexts and channels.

Speakers:

Olarewanju Ramon Babamole

National Youth Network on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria

Olanrewaju Ramon Babamole is a youth activist, community organizer, and HIV advocate, as well as the current Lagos State Coordinator of National Youth Network on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NYNETHA), a network of more than 100 youth-led and youth focused organizations in Lagos State. He is currently Secretary of Lagos State Technical working group on HIV Prevention, a member of resources mobilization under Lagos State AIDS Control Agency, and a member of Youth and Adolescent Technical Working group under Lagos State Ministry of Health/UNFPA. He holds BSc in Sociology from University of Ilorin and Bsc criminology in view with Atlantic International University.

Margaret Njenga

Event Description: Digital health is revolutionizing health care by providing the platform to facilitate and promote self-care, thereby increasing access and equity to essential health information and services. The expansion of mobile phones, smartphone applications, internet access and artificial intelligence is enabling people to engage in self-care in new ways. This session will highlight the role of digital health in self-care. Presenters will share their experiences and challenges with using digital health technology in research settings, during the COVID-19 pandemic and when providing services to low socio-economic groups. The session will also introduce the participants to the Digital Health Framework, developed by HealthEnabled in partnership with the Self-Care Trailblazers Group, share experiences of utilizing it, and promote its use to guide the design and implementation of self-care interventions.

Speakers:

Laxmi Rao

Senior Director SBCC, Pathfinder, India

K Laxmi Rao is the Senior Director SBCC for the YUVAA Project in Pathfinder-India. He has over 15 years of public health experience, specializing in SBCC. He has worked on family planning, social marketing, NCD and WASH related global and national award winning SBCC campaigns. He is a staunch advocate of ‘inter-personal communication’ for behavior change.

Event Description: Self-Care and Abortion: This session centers on understanding the pathways and choices along a person’s abortion self-care journey, as well as the support needed for their informed choice and access to quality products and care. Convened by the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Rutgers, Women on Web and Options Consultancy Services, we will be discussing the different pathways of abortion self-care, including through accompaniment models, the transformative opportunity presented by digital solutions, and the role of health systems.

Lilian Muchoki

Partnership Associate Women First Digital

Lilian is a fierce Feminist and a dedicated women rights activist with more than 8 years of experience in promoting the rights of women as an activist, trainer and facilitator. She has a background in sociology and political studies (B.A.) and is currently pursuing her M.A. in international relations and diplomacy, a field that has allowed her to interact with the politics surrounding a woman’s body. Lilian is passionate about gender equality and equity in access to sexual and reproductive health and rights and has for the last 4 years worked in advancing access to safe abortion information and care within Eastern Africa. Her current role at Women First Digital in Kenya involves promoting women’s access to sexual and reproductive health information and services through the currently available, and the ever-expanding digital technologies. 

Adriana Vallejos

Adriana is a feminist activist socorrista from Neuquén, in Argentine Patagonia. She is currently finishing her graduate degree in Psychology at the National University of Comahue, where she also participates in a research project on topics related to Community Psychology. She is part of the “Colectiva Feminista La Revuelta“, a local feminist organization with 20 years of experience, which integrates “Socorristas en Red“, an articulation of collectives in Argentina. As part of La Revuelta, she accompanies people in their abortion decisions and processes from the logic of the accompaniment device called “Socorro Rosa”. In addition to the accompaniments, being part of La Revuelta implies a territorial work of feminist activism: they carry on street interventions, collective virtual actions, dissemination campaigns, and collective training in various topics concerning feminist theories and politics.

Dr. Fekou Cyrille Eddy

CAMNAFAW, Cameroon

Dr Eddy Fekou is a general practitioner at the Cameroon National Association for Family Welfare (CAMNAFAW). He started his professional career as a consultant at Humanity First, a community-based organisation working in the fight against HIV among key populations. His career path led him to the Kids Aids as Medical Coordinator, where his skills were put to good use in improving the care of children living with HIV. Dr. Fekou joined CAMNAFAW in March 2017, as a clinician at the CAMNAFAW Medical Centre in Soa and he was subsequently promoted to Clinic Manager. His areas of expertise are in the field of sexual and reproductive health, including modern methods of contraception, gynaecological cancer screening, the management of STIs, gender-based violence, and safe abortion including surgical and medical management of abortion, 1st and 2nd trimester abortion, post-abortion care. He also has expertise in values clarification for positive attitudinal transformation in various aspects of SRH, particularly for adolescents and young people. He is currently the acting coordinator of the Global Comprehensive Abortion Care Initiative (GCACI) in Cameroon.

Event Description:

The first consolidated guideline on self-care interventions launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019 marked a paradigm shift to place individuals at the center of responsive and accountable health systems. Join us for a 90-minute interactive ‘talk show’ to learn about the WHO Consolidated Guideline on Self-Care Interventions for Health (2019), its recent 2021 updates, and how trailblazing countries are adapting the global guidance to scale-up self-care within national health systems as an approach to support universal health coverage. Moderated by the WHO, this session will showcase national experiences developing self-care policies and guidelines. Nigeria and Uganda will share their experiences pioneering the development of national self-care guidelines in 2020. Pakistan will share how they’re planning to approach self-care policy. Australia will share lessons from its National Policy Blueprint for Self-Care which provides a framework for action to achieve integration of self-care across Australia’s health system.

Speakers:

Dr. Fauzia Assad

Country Director, Jhpiego-Pakistan

Dr. Fauzia Assad, Country Director in Jhpiego- a Public Health Specialist and with an experience of Law and Management for over 20 years. She studied medicine from Karachi, had a clinical experience of Gynae/Obst and proceeded to work in a fast, upscale environment of Public Health in various INGOs. Passionate about women’s health and reproductive rights, the move to Jhpiego was a natural fit from technical advisor to now Director Program’s position. She is also regional mentor and Jhpiego designated expert trainer. She works at both the technical and policy levels. She believes in the volunteer work since her student life therefore is a member of UN reserve force, recipient of American Presidential Award on Community Work and Woman of the Millennium Award by South Asia Foundation along with other reputable awards at national level. Also nominated as women leadership in UN women Chapter from Pakistan.

Dr Kayode Afolabi

Director, Reproductive Health Division of the Federal Ministry of Health

Dr Kayode Afolabi, Director, Reproductive Health Division of the Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria has 30 years of experience in the field of Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) in Nigeria. He also served the Oyo State Government of Nigeria as Honourable Commissioner of Health. Currently Dr. Kayode Afolabi provides leadership in Sexual and Reproductive Health System Strengthening, Government Policy Development, and Development/Humanitarian Programme Coordination in RMNCAH towards improving health of mothers, adolescents and children under five in Nigeria.

Dr. Lillian Sekabembe

Deputy Country Director, Population Services International Uganda

Dr. Lillian Sekabembe is a public health specialist and development leader with 15 years’ work experience in the health sector at community and national levels as well as resource limited and emergency relief settings. She is currently the Deputy Country Representative at Population Services International (PSI) Uganda. Dr. Lillian holds a Master’s degree in Public Health and a Bachelor of Science in Human Medicine and Surgery from Makerere University. Additionally, she attained a Diploma in Leadership and Management from the University of Los Angeles.

Dr Olumuyiwa Ojo

National Professional Officer, Maternal, Sexual and Reproductive Health, World Health Organization, Abuja, Nigeria

Dr Olumuyiwa Ojo MBBS, MPH is a Public health practitioner with over a decade-long experience at various levels of health-care delivery, Health system strengthening interventions, RMNCH programs, Implementation research, HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria projects. He is presently the focal point for Maternal, Sexual and reproductive health programs with World Health Organization Nigeria. He is the Country focal point for WHO-led MNCH QOC network and support implementation at Federal and health facilities in the network. Before his present role, he worked on implementation of evidence-based and policy-driven health system strengthening interventions to improve performance, capacity and overall management of Health workers geared towards improving the Health system to deliver quality MNCH services.

Roselyn Odeh

Event Description: This session aims to illustrate and cement the need for more coordinated learning and metrics for self-care, and to share some practical experiences on how to do so at the global and country level. The presenters will use interactive approaches, including polls, Q&A, and talk-show and game-show approaches to engage participants and solicit feedback on specific questions. The session ends with a Call to Action to coordinate and align around measurement of self-care. At the end of the session, participants will leave with ideas on how to identify research and learning questions and how to measure self-care. 

Recording is unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Speakers:

Dr. Holly M. Burke

Scientist, FHI 360

Holly M. Burke, PhD, MPH has 20 years of experience conducting applied research focused on sexual and reproductive health, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. She has held scientific leadership roles as the Principal or Co-Investigator for 18 studies utilizing various research methodologies resulting in 35 peer-reviewed journal articles. Since 2009, Dr. Burke has been FHI 360’s lead scientist on DMPA-SC and self-injection efforts and is a leading expert in this field.

Suzanne Kiwanuka

Makerere University, School of Public Health, Uganda

Suzanne is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Health Policy Planning and Management at Makerere University School of Public health. She is a health systems researcher with keen interest in knowledge management, human resources for health, health policy, governance and maternal health.

Fatoumata Traore-Toure

FHI 360, Cote d’Ivoire

Fatoumata is Associate Director for BMGF REACH (Resiliency through Azithromycin for Children) at FHI 360. She is a medical doctor and PhD researcher (Epidemiology) who recently led a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded HIV research/ implementation project in Côte d’Ivoire for FHI 360. She is based in Côte d’Ivoire.

Dr. Dieudonne Bidashimwa

Associate Scientist, FHI 360

Dieudonne, an associate scientist at FHI 360, is leading a multi-country study on self-care acceptability under the R4S project. Before joining FHI, Dieudonne worked on a project piloting self-injection of DMPA-SC in the Democratic Republic of Congo, among other FP and MCH-related studies there.

Sruthi Chandrasekaran

Senior Project Manager, Ibis Reproductive Health

Sruthi Chandrasekaran leads work on self-managed abortion in India. She also serves as the Principal Investigator on several projects, including a research portfolio aimed at protecting and expanding access to abortion after the first trimester in the United States, and a mixed-method study documenting the medication abortion needs and preferences of Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in the United States.

Dr. Ugo Okoli

Deputy Country Director, Jhpiego Nigeria

Dr Ugo Okoli is the Project Director for the RICOM3 Project focused on reducing the indirect causes of maternal morbidity and mortality in Lagos State the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)and funded by the MSD for Mothers. Dr Okoli is a seasoned public health specialist with extensive experience in strategic development and implementation of maternal and child health and quality of care programs.

Gillian Leitch

HIV Access Program Manager, CHAI

Gillian Leitch is focused on introducing and scaling optimal HIV testing strategies, including HIV self-testing. In her work, Gillian supports Ministries of Health in East and Southern Africa to set evidence-based HIV testing targets, strengthen national planning and decision-making, and mobilize resources for HIV testing services. She has more than six years of experience working with public- and private-sector global health partners to expand access to vaccines, family planning, and diagnostic products.

Simon Peter Kibira

Makerere University, School of Public Health, Uganda

Simon is a social and population scientist and a Lecturer at the School of Public Health at Makerere University. Simon has over 15 years’ experience in conducting, supervising, coordinating and managing research activities at different levels, and is a member of the Uganda Self-care expert group and the Uganda FP2030 National steering committee, among other groups.

Allen Namagembe

PATH, Uganda

Allen Namagembe is a clinical epidemiologist and a biostatistician with over 10 years of experience in research, monitoring and evaluation, data management, and policy advocacy. She is currently working for PATH as Uganda’s Deputy Project Director and M&E Lead on the DMPA-SC Access Collaborative project. Allen also serves as a global and regional expert on self-injection and is a member of the Uganda self-care expert group. She has developed and implemented numerous research protocols to study feasibility, acceptability, continuation, and rollout of self-injection of DMPA-SC.

Dr. Jean Christophe (JC) Fotso

Executive Director, Evihdaf

JC is the Founder and Executive Director of EVIHDAF (Evidence for Sustainable Human Development Systems in Africa), a research and evaluation organization headquartered in Yaounde, Cameroon, which serves the West and Central Africa region. He is a research and evaluation professional with over 20 years’ experience in family planning and reproductive health, maternal and child health, nutrition and food security, and health systems strengthening and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, USA.

Philip Chikolowere Mkandawire

Head of Marketing and Research, PSI Malawi

Philip is responsible for leading the development and execution of PSI Malawi research and marketing strategies and has 15 years of hands-on experience in research and marketing. He is very passionate at providing high quality, cutting edge research that helps to better understand complex profiles of consumers and how business can tap directly into their habits, aspirations and attitudes.

Event Description: Self-care is one of the most promising approaches to ensure that populations have efficient, adequate, and appropriate healthcare, particularly in the context of the third wave of the COVID-19, which is proving more deadly in most countries. Despite growing consensus on its role in the healthcare continuum, and a WHO definition, self-care has not become as embedded in health systems as it should be. There are many misconceptions around the concept of self-care and the benefits that self-care brings to health systems and consumer health outcomes. One of the most effective methods of transforming opposition to support is to demonstrate the value of self-care by showing the evidence on a social, health and economic level. This will also help to garner support from policymakers around the world.

In this session we will: Showcase the initiative by the National Self-Care Pioneers Group and the Senegalese Women’s Network for the Promotion of Family Planning (REFESPF) in promoting a strong advocacy campaign, leading to the integration of self-care in health policies in Senegal. Highlight current evidence on the benefits of self-care from the Global Self-Care Federation’s new report, the Self-Care Readiness Index, and recent studies on the socio-economic value of self-care.

Moderators:

Judy Stenmark

Director General, Global Self-Care Federation

Speakers:

Ida Ndione

Senior Program Manager, PATH Senegal

Juan Thompson

Director General, Latin American Association of Responsible Self-Care (ILAR)

Juan Thompson holds a degree from the Argentinian Business University (UADE) in Government and International Affairs with a specialization in Latin American Regional Integration. He has experience providing political, strategic and regulatory advice to companies, trade associations and government bodies in Latin America. In addition, he is involved in the analysis of key health stakeholders, at regional and international level, and their impact on the policy-making process in Latin America. Before joining ILAR, Juan worked for the Latin American Alliance for Responsible Nutrition (ALANUR) and the Brazilian Association of Foods (ABIAD) as Executive Director. He has managed the association’s interactions and representations with government officials at national and regional level such as Pacific Alliance, Mercosur, Codex Alimentarius, Latin American Parliament, Central American Integration Process and Pan American Health Organization, among others.

Event Description: Policy and Legal Frameworks to Support Self-Care during COVID-19 and Beyond: This session will discuss the different obligations of duty bearers and right’s holders in the promoting self-care capability in a way that is person-centred and sustainable in the context of the healthcare system. We will consider the example of how countries are aligning with the WHO Guideline for Self-Care Interventions, and more broadly the importance of enabling the legal and policy environment to promote self-care in the new setting.

Speakers: 

Dr. Moses Mulumba

Director of at Center for Health, Human Rights and Development Uganda

Mulumba Moses is a Lawyer with special interest in International Human Rights, Global Health and Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights. He has a Bachelor’s of Laws (LLB), Post Graduate Bar qualification, Master of Laws and Master of Philosophy in health sciences. Mulumba has widely researched, published and taught in the various areas of global health and international human rights.

He has been an African Advisor to the HIV and the Law Commission and a former board member to the Uganda National Drug Authority (NDA). Mr. Mulumba has successfully been a principle and co-investigator on a number of research projects funded among others IDRC, SIDA, Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, European Union, the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) and the European Space Agency. His recent projects include serving as a legal researcher on a scoping assessment of the global financing facility (GFF) implementation in Uganda and study on developing the regulatory aspects for Satellite-Enhanced Telemedicine and eHealth for sub-Saharan Africa (eHSA).

Dr. Austen El-Osta

Director of the Self-Care Academic Research Unit (SCARU) at Imperial College London

Dr Austen EL-Osta is Director of the Self-Care Academic Research Unit (SCARU) at Imperial College London School of Public Health. He is also Director & Trustee of the International Self-Care Foundation and is a fellow of the International College of Person-Centred Medicine. His initial contribution to the self-care space was the publication of the Self-Care Matrix which is a unifying framework for self-care. He also led the development of a pragmatic policy mapping tool that could be used at country level to assess levels of implementation of the WHO Guideline on Self-Care Interventions for Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights. Imperial SCARU is committed to making the ‘absolute case for self-care’ and to promoting the widespread adoption and diffusion of evidence-based policy prescriptions to embed good health-seeking self-care behaviours through the life cycle for the benefit of individuals and society fit for 21st century living. @austenelosta @ImperialSCARU

Katherine Mayall

Director of Strategic Initiatives, Center for Reproductive Rights

Katherine Mayall is the Director of Strategic Initiatives in the Global Legal Strategies unit, which serves as the focal point for ensuring technical excellence and legal coherency across the Center. In this capacity, Katherine oversees the development of technical resources such as the World Abortion Laws map and institutional legal positions. From 2017-2019, Katherine served as the Center’s Director of Capacity Building, overseeing a $3.5 million euro grant to advance legal networks, technical assistance, and capacity building. Katherine received her J.D. from Fordham Law School and has a B.S. in communications from Boston University.

Aïssata Fall

Event Description:

Self-Care and Universal Health Coverage: To reach the goal of universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030, we need every idea on the table for transforming health systems and markets to advance people-centered primary health care (PHC)—including appropriately supported self-care. WHO developed self-care guidelines for SRHR in 2019, which were recently updated with a broader look across health areas and are being adopted and adapted by individual countries.  During this session, we will explore how evidence-based self-care within PHC can support governments to achieve UHC; and what steps governments and partners across sectors can take to finance and scale self-care tools and approaches in the context of UHC efforts. UHC policy experts, health economists, and self-care champions from different countries will share their experiences, and participants will have the chance to practice making the case for the role of self-care in UHC through an interactive exercise.

Speakers:

Mercy Mvundur

Technical Advisor, PATH

Mercy Mvundura, PhD works as a health economics technical advisor at PATH. She has over 10 years of experience leading the design and conduct of economic evaluations of health care programs, interventions, and technologies. She led the costing and costing effectiveness studies during the Sayana Press pilot introductions in Uganda, Senegal and Burkina Faso. In addition to this work in reproductive health, she has  experience conducting economic evaluations for other health programs including the immunization program and cervical cancer screening. Dr. Mvundura holds a doctorate in economics from Georgia State University, USA and a did a post-doctoral fellowship at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr Patrick Kadama

Event Description:

In this session, young people will take the lead in defining what self-care actually means to them, which may extend beyond the clinical notions of self-care that have been used by the public health sector to date. They will share some of the challenges that traditionally impede them and their peers from achieving their self-care goals in the ways in which they have defined and experienced self-care, and will shed light on some of the activities and approaches (both digital and analogue) that have been helpful in overcoming these challenges.

Moderator:

Ipsa Agnani

Speakers:

Susan Towett

Event Description:

In this exciting interactive session, we will explore how provider competencies need to shift to support clients in safe, quality self-care, and how to support providers in this evolving role. Participants will gain various perspectives on questions like “how does self-care fit into clients’ health goals and where do providers fit into this journey? How can midwives support and promote self-care among young people? What factors help healthcare providers facilitate client uptake and continuation of preventive self-care behaviors and products?”. Participants will also engage in discussion and Q&A with panelists, and partake in small-group exercises to unpack the barriers and benefits for provider-supported self-care, the shifts needed among healthcare providers, and what support is needed to assist healthcare providers in this evolution of their role.

Moderator:

Dr. Helen Blackholly

Vice President and Director Technical Services for MSI Reproductive Choices

Helen joined the Executive team at MSI Reproductive Choices six years ago after a successful career in the commercial sector. After completing her degree in Biology, MSc in Anthropology and PhD PhD in Food Policy, Helen started her professional journey with a UK based supermarket chain, utilising the skills skills learnt in behaviour change to encourage healthy eating. Here, Helen had a series of commercial trading and marketing roles, including a secondment with McKinsey, the management consultancy firm. Helen then moved into organisations including Colgate Palmolive where she ran Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals, responsible for healthcare professional products; collaborating with key bodies such as British Dental Association, British Dental Hygienists Association & represented industry for think tank “Demos” on Future of Dental Health to help shape Government dental health policy. At Revlon as Commercial Director, UK & Ireland, the focus was on building brands using consumer insight and innovation and at Reckitt Benckiser as Global Trade Marketing Director, Helen led a team to develop sales & channel strategies where her work took her across the globe, ranging from Indonesian “wet” markets to working with International retailers in the USA. This wide and deep experience on understanding consumer motivations and how best to meet those needs has been invaluable in Helen’s role at MSI. The Technical Services Department is charged with developing the solutions for best practice across MSI channels (clinics, outreach, Marie Stopes community based nurses, and public sector strengthening) to reach both the most marginalised and disadvantaged in society but also to ensure sustainable delivery through a strengthened private sector. This includes innovation in behavioural and social norms change; use of digital technology and contact centres to inform, educate and refer clients to safe services; implementing integrated service solutions such as cervical cancer, vaccines; creating sustainable, high quality clinics that enable essential access for surgical abortion/PAC services; maximising the reach, efficiency and effectiveness of mobile teams; developing SRH products for commercial sale; and providing the data & evidence that makes the case for SRHR investment to empower women around the globe to have access to safe contraception and safe abortion/post abortion care.

Speakers:

Raveena Chowdhury

Event Description:

How do people make decisions around self-care? And what is the relationship between self-care decisions and empowerment? In this interactive session, we’ll take a deep dive into understanding the perspectives, needs and challenges distinct populations across Africa and Asia – including youth, girls, women entering the workforce, special needs populations, and the elderly – face around self-care. We’ll also explore a social and behavior change framework that illuminates the behavioral elements of decision-making and empowerment to help us design effective self-care programs. We’ll discuss with the audience key topics related to self-care and empowerment, such as: when should people seek care and when should they self-manage? What is the provider’s role in setting these boundaries? What policies can amplify access and use of empowering self-care initiatives? Participants will leave this session with new insights and approaches to improve the impact and uptake of self-care interventions.

Moderator:

Sylvia Wamugi-Obaga

Deputy Director – Advocacy, Communications and Strategic Partnerships, Y-ACT, Kenya

Sylvia Wamugi-Obaga is currently the Deputy Director of Advocacy, Communications and Strategic Partnerships at Y-ACT (Youth in Action), a regional initiative of Amref Health Africa that aims to mentor, support and increase the capacity of youth advocates to influence youth policy and resource priorities in the areas of gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Africa. Sylvia is passionate about social advocacy, communications and women’s right to health. She has over 13 years’ experience in social & behavior change communications (SBCC), advocacy communications, social accountability, content management, digital strategy management, youth programming and project management. She holds a Masters Degree in International Communications Management (Development) from University of Warwick (UK).

Speakers:

Christy Asala

Event Description:

Self-Care is a radical act of liberation and a powerful tool used to challenge the status quo individually and collectively. Self-care can be deeply individualized yet requires a unified effort to become institutionalized into collective care. Join us for this exciting session that centers on self-care’s connection to bodily autonomy, liberation, and gender transformation from activists working in trans community care in Colombia, in feminist accompaniment of abortions in Latin America, and feminist self-defense in the US. Convened by Profamilia, BalanceMX, and White Ribbon Alliance, this session features interactive dialogue as participants learn how to practice and progress self- and collective care in our everyday lives.

**Please note that this event features a 40-minute interactive session on Feminist Self-Defense where participants are encouraged to practice self-defense techniques like basic punches and kicks. Participants are recommended to wear comfortable clothing and find a space to safely move in. Movements can be modified to meet the needs and abilities of attendees (for example, those sitting in a chair at home or in an office). We look forward to seeing you there!**

Moderator:

Diana Carolina Moreno

Advocacy Director, Profamilia, Colombia

Diana Carolina Moreno is a lawyer from the Universidad Javeriana and LLM from Columbia University. She  is currently Director of Advocacy at Profamilia. Diana has worked for human rights and sexual and reproductive rights at the Center for Reproductive Rights, ELEMENTA S.A.S, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and Women’s Link Worldwide. Diana has also been a researcher and professor at the Universidad Javeriana on issues of gender, human rights and armed conflict since the beginning of her legal studies. In her professional career she has participated in national and regional strategic litigation activities related to women’s and LGBTI rights.

Speakers:

Oriana López Uribe

Event Description:

Approximately 1.8 billion people live in fragile settings, including 168 million in humanitarian settings. Achieving Universal Health Coverage and Sustainable Development Goals for sexual and reproductive health and rights requires that innovations in service delivery be applied at scale across the humanitarian-development nexus. This interactive session will examine promising strategies for increasing access to sexual and reproductive health self-care in humanitarian settings and how learning from these settings can be applicable everywhere. We will also explore ways in which to adapt and apply evidence around self-care from stable settings to humanitarian settings. We will hear directly from humanitarian implementers on innovative approaches to self-care in crises and discuss how we can engage both humanitarian and development partners in advancing an inclusive self-care agenda that responds to the needs of people in humanitarian and fragile settings.

Moderator:

Erin Wheeler

Senior Technical Advisor for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, International Rescue Committee

Erin Wheeler is the Senior Technical Advisor for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights at the International Rescue Committee.  Prior to joining the IRC, she worked with the RAISE Initiative at Columbia University. She is an active member of Interagency Working Group for Reproductive Health in Crises and is the co-chair of the safe abortion care sub-working group.  Erin spent three years in Central Africa working for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Rwanda and for the IRC in the DRC. Erin is also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Senegal and holds a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University.

Dr. Roopan Gill

Co-Founder and Executive Direcotor, Vitala Global Foundation

Dr. Roopan Gill is an obstetrician gynecologist with expertise in family planning. She is the  Co-Founder and Executive Director of, Vitala Global Foundation that is focused on developing digital solutions to empower women living in challenging contexts to self-manage their sexual and reproductive health needs. She is also a field worker and technical referent with Medecins Sans Frontieres and has spent time in Nigeria and Yemen. Dr. Gill is a recipient of various grants as primary investigator including Grand Challenges Canada OPTions Grant, Saving Lives at Birth and Society for Family Planning. She has published in peer-reviewed journals on topics to better understand the challenges and needs of women and girls accessing reproductive and sexual healthcare needs. Her most recent work includes building a digital tool using user-centered design to support Venezuelan women to self-manage their sexual and reproductive health needs.  In her spare time, she is learning to kite surf, is a fitness fanatic and loves travel and a good book.

Speakers:

Sheena M Currie, RN, RM, MEd, PGCE

Senior Maternal and Newborn Health Adviser, Jhpiego

Sheena Currie, a British midwife educator and maternal and newborn health expert, has 20 years’ experience working in low resource and fragile settings, providing technical guidance in the development, management and evaluation of maternal and newborn health programs including support for skilled birth attendants, especially midwives. Sheena has work experience from Afghanistan, Myanmar, South Sudan & Yemen.

Marta Royo

Executive Director, Profamilia, Colombia

Marta Royo found a great opportunity to serve as a rights activist when she became the Executive Director of Profamilia in 2012, Colombia’s longest -standing non-governmental organization that provides, protects, and advocates for sexual and reproductive rights and services. This responsibility has given her the opportunity to help achieve significant political and social transformation aimed towards improving the status of girls and women in Colombia, including, but not limited to: leading legislature on the National Policy on Sexuality and Sexual and Reproductive Rights; making sure these rights are recognized for people with disabilities; eliminating the barriers that prevent women from accessing safe abortions. In this position, she has managed to implement a successful social enterprise model, while working towards making Profamilia a sustainable organization and expanding the social impact of its programs and initiatives. This model has targeted marginalized areas, where women and girls experience vast inequalities seen in high teen pregnancy rates, gender-based violence, low levels of reproductive autonomy among women and their low representation in the education system. Of Spanish and Panamanian nationality, Marta Royo graduated from Dartmouth College. She holds a post-graduate degree in Social Economy from the University of Barcelona; a Master’s in Literature from New York University; Advanced Negotiation Program from University of California, Berkeley; a Health Management Development Program from Universidad de los Andes and the Innovation and Strategy Program from Universidad de la Sabana.

Diana Carolina Moreno

Director of Advocacy, Profamilia, Colombia

Diana Carolina Moreno is a lawyer from the Universidad Javeriana and LLM from Columbia University. She is currently Director of Advocacy at Profamilia. Diana has worked for human rights and sexual and reproductive rights at the Center for Reproductive Rights, ELEMENTA S.A.S, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and Women’s Link Worldwide. Diana has also been a researcher and professor at the Universidad Javeriana on issues of gender, human rights and armed conflict since the beginning of her legal studies. In her professional career she has participated in national and regional strategic litigation activities related to women’s and LGBTI rights.

Faridah Luandah

Refugee from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and lived at Kyaka II Refugee settlement, in Uganda for 5 years and recently resettled to Stockholm, Sweden

Faridah’s life experience as a child mother, SGBV survivor and a victim of forced marriage has inspired her to want to make a difference and to create change in her community, her life, and her family by transforming vulnerabilities into strengths. Together with her brother she built One Touch Solar-Powered Music Studio, which produces songs with a social message —about HiV Aids, to promote girls’ education and try to stop child marriage, gender based violence and early pregnancy. She also started the DA VISION GROUP, which works to transform young refugees’ lives through music, dance, drama, education and livelihood activities. She has been a champion for self care and sexual and reproductive health rights (SRSH); she has run workshops to teach others how to make reusable pads, distributed condoms and promoted SRSH, self-care and self protection for girls and young women. She believes that as an aspect of SRHR, it is important to speak out against the the sexual exploitation that can occur in refugee contexts and that can put girls and young women at risk of early pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Faridah is an advocate for partnering with refugee youth and supporting their leadership in addressing these challenges.

Dr. Manisha Kumar

Coordinator of the Task Force for Safe Abortion Care, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Manisha is a family medicine doctor with a Masters in Public Health and fellowship training in Obstetrics. She has been working for Médecins Sans Frontières since 2014 and is currently the intersectional coordinator for safe abortion care.

Event Description:

This session will examine the intersection of respectful care and self-care and provide a space for an open and honest conversation about the systemic challenges women and providers face when trying to care for themselves and others. Speakers will introduce respectful care, compassionate, and anti-racist frameworks that can address systemic challenges before an open presentation and discussion of the ways women and communities are navigating health systems and community services to care for themselves in the meantime.

Speakers:

Carmen Green

Carmen’s career trajectory heads towards applications of reproductive justice in research, policy and culture change for health equity. Racial equity, justice and the human rights framework are understood through sociological meaning, which is why she is honored to bring a community based and sociological perspective to the Birth Equity Collaborative. As former Director, now VP of research and strategy, Carmen is core personnel on major projects with Johns Hopkins University and Tulane University. She has co-created and conducting Birth Equity Assessments for health and hospital systems, analyzed qualitative analysis projects and synthesized data to illuminate opportunities for improvement. Carmen is part of the 2016 cohort of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities State Policy Fellowship which focused on health policy, long term care support and predatory lending. Carmen is also the creative director of Hazel Green, LLC, building capacity for Black owned community-based programs and family services. Currently, Carmen is a sociology doctoral student in the University of California San Francisco School of Nursing. In addition to being a doula in training, she holds degrees in sociology, maternal and child health and community health education from Wake Forest and Tulane Universities, respectively.

Heather Buesseler

Focus Area for Compassion & Ethics (FACE) The Task Force for Global Health, United States

Heather has 18 years’ experience in global health in both development and humanitarian settings. She is currently focused on the integration of compassion into health services and population health programming in order to improve patient experience and to accelerate achievement of SDG 3: Good Health and Well Being. She is equally passionate about fostering caring cultures in health systems and organizations that prioritize the mental and emotional health of its workers and that provide opportunities to cultivate their self-compassion and resilience.

Dr. Dinesh Baswal

Deputy Director, Programs, MAMTA | Ex-Joint Commissioner, Maternal health at Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, India

Ofelia Pérez

Event Description:

This session aims to define and outline what self-care means based on WHO definitions and perceptions of individual participants. Interactive discussion via audio and chat to identify societal perceptions of self-care and how it varies. We’ll explore multiple factors like race, gender identity, economic status and access to healthcare, and what role trauma plays. Discuss ways to improve access to self-care tools and mental health resources. Derive a “game plan”, based on the outcomes of the discussion, for each participant to take initial steps to garner authority over their well-being and practical steps to lead others to do the same.

Moderator:

Tamika English

Operations Manager, SisterLove

Speakers:

Freedom Osun Bey, BSN, MS, RN