Mentorship for Girls: The Value of Mentoring for the “Not So Young Women” - International Women's Month
By Dr. Brenda Oulo - Regional Head of Research, East Africa - AMPLIFY GIRLS
I have always wanted to be an “independent researcher” way before I fully understood what it really meant. Since leaving clinical practice to pursue research full time, I craved to be able to design, implement, analyze and publish my own research project that was not linked to academic studies but instead answered a real-world problem that mattered to the communities around me.
During the height of the COVID pandemic, I got an opportunity to accomplish this dream as I was the principal investigator of a multi-country study that sought to provide detailed evidence on the experience of girls during the COVID lockdowns. Recently, I was having brunch with my inner circle of friends from my medical school days and as we were chatting away laughing and sometimes exploring deep difficult aspects of our lives, they (hey Dr. Wanjiku & Nduta) mentioned that I probably should be more open to speaking about my career journey as in their view it was worth sharing. My friends are all now specialist doctors pursuing various opportunities and impacting lives in both public and private healthcare in Kenya and Tanzania. I remember thinking long after the conversation ended if they were right. What have I done that is so media-worthy? Should I be more outward about my achievements?
For those who know me well, I am the video-off, interview declining, social media shy researcher who prefers to remain as behind the scenes as possible. I looked back at my career trajectory and thought well if there was anything I wanted to share is the role and space that other women have held for me in my journey to becoming an independent researcher.
It all started while I was working as a doctor in a clinical trial that demonstrated the effectiveness of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (Prep) among HIV sero-discordant couples. I was thrilled to be part of a team that was achieving great scientific milestones but at the same time also deeply disturbed that we would ship lab samples and data collection forms to the foreign collaborator for processing, analysis, and eventual publication of results. I thought well, I could probably contribute more substantially to this if I did a masters that would give me the requisite skills to contribute more meaningfully and proceeded to pursue my masters in epidemiology at one of Africa’s best research universities in South Africa.
Upon completion of my masters studies, I returned home to Kenya and was looking for work as a study coordinator and bumped into my former boss from my Prep trial days along the corridors. She said to pop into her office after my job interview which I did. The conversation we had that day changed my thinking and set me on a different career journey. She basically said that she thought I should focus my intellectual capabilities to achieve more than just study coordination. Nevertheless, I did get the job but also got a separate mentoring opportunity to work as a research fellow more intensively involved in adolescent health research design and implementation under one of Africa’s leading scientists based in South Africa.
With her words echoing in my brain, the choice was clear. I took the mentoring opportunity and came back to Kenya having had an opportunity to lead the study design of a research project of great magnitude, something that I had always desired. Since my return in 2019, I joined a small team of women at AMPLIFY Girls who were determined to re-imagine working with local communities to uplift community-driven organizations working with adolescent girls in East Africa. I have served in a capacity that has allowed me to work collaboratively with community-based organizations to design and implement research. At AMPLIFY Girls we are making great strides towards the inclusion of local community-based organizations in research spaces that they traditionally would have been excluded from due to limited technical capacity and/or funding but this is only the beginning towards shifting this narrative. Even at AMPLIFY Girls, I have worked with colleagues who have given me the space and encouragement to pursue projects as an independent researcher, leading me to believe that my dream is indeed attainable. I now better understand the term and working towards making it my reality.
To mention a few of the women whose mentoring has inspired me: Dr. Nelly Mugo, Prof Linda-Gail Bekker, and Dr. Aubryn Sidle, thank you! Don’t stop mentoring. The journey ahead is still long and difficult, but I want to reiterate that mentoring is not only useful for adolescent girls and young women, it is also immensely useful for “not so young women”. But more importantly, early-career African women scientists are capable, and we need the opportunities, nurturing, and funding to design and implement research within our own communities; not only as local collaborators of foreign researchers but as the principal investigators contributing to scientific milestones for our people.
Dr. Brenda Oulo is AMPLIFY Girls’ Regional Head of Research, East Africa. You can reach out to Brenda through brenda@amplifygirls.org.