Incredible women in science

Olive Kobusingye
She is a surgeon and an epidemiologist. She is also a senior research fellow at Makerere Public School of Health and teaches students pursuing masters and PhDs at Makerere University.
She has worked as a full time surgeon, treating injured patients as well as those dealing with trauma and violence.
“As a clinician, it was very disturbing for me to see patients who did not make it to the hospital, due to delayed administration of first aid,” Kobusingye says.
Later, she worked as a World Health Organisation (WHO) regional advisor, where she worked with countries to compile data about trauma and injury cases, to improve the lives of injured victims and set up policies to drive acute trauma care systems.
She championed efforts to have clinicians save more lives from severe injuries and have better pre-hospital care administered.
Kobusingye led the team that invented the Kampala Trauma Score (KTS), which measures the degree of injury and the clinician is able to accurately determine the gravity of the injury.
It is a technical process beyond sight that assesses the depth of the wound, broken bone, measures high blood pressure, heart beat, respiratory system and other organs. Thereafter, clinicians make a triage decision and priority based decision on what to administer to patients. KTS is a system that has been adopted worldwide. She says: “Our only challenge as health practioners is that stakeholders hardly implement new policies or solutions provided by researchers. Research is carried out to improve people’s lives and to provide solutions. But many of these remain on shelves. Many people would survive if we had better networking systems among police, public hospitals and ministry of health.”
Patients have inpired Kobusingye to be where she is today and she continues to save more lives.

Victoria Nakibuuka
She is a paediatrician and neonatologist who has been working at Nsambya Hospital for the last 12 years. She has particular interest in the neonates because of the many deaths she has witnessed since 2008.
She says: “Babies used to die due to fatigue and infections at birth. I needed to understand the life of a baby, to manage its health better and advocate for it.”
Nakibuuka went to Nakasero Primary School and later joined Nabisunsa Girls High School for her O- and A-Levels. She went to Mbarara University of Science and Technology and pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine.
When an opportunity to pursue further studies in neonatal care for two years at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, presented itself, Nakibuka embraced it. While there, her eyes were opened to the weaknesses during child care. When she completed her masters, she worked with the hospital administration to remodel the neonatal infrastructure.
She lobbied the hospital administration to buy more equipment and increase the number of health workers in the neonatal unit.
“Spending a week without registering any child deaths was worth celebrating. Together with other medical teams, we have significantly reduced child mortality from 10 per cent to 4 per cent,”she adds.
After numerous calls to improve the lives of preterm babies, Nakibuuka teamed up with other health professionals and introduced the use of breastmilk among preterm babies, who were less than 1.5kg. So far, more than 100 babies have benefited from this intervention.
Many mothers of preterm babies have little breastmilk especially in the first one week, yet the babies need breastmilk to survive.

Sarah Kiguli
Prof Sarah Kiguli is the president of Uganda Women Medical Doctors. She is also a pediatrician and teaches research at Makerere University. She attributes her career success to publishing research journals.
Since 1987, she has been practicing as a medicine doctor. When she completed her first degree, she later pursued a masters degree in pediatrics.
She has provided clinical services to sick children at Mulago Referral hospital, trained graduate medical doctors, nurses and other health professionals on a transformative approach on how to communicate, listen and address the concerns of patients.
She has mentored young people especially female doctors to make a difference in promoting health driven initiatives. She represented Uganda to draft a policy framework under the Feast Trial of fluids bolus; ‘Giving fluids rapidly to sick children is harmful’, which WHO recommended in its policy guidelines in developing countries.
Her love for children is unrivalled. She says when they are sick, they speak out their mind.
“As a woman, one needs to work twice as hard as a man to get to the top and sometimes, we are not taken seriously as men. I believe I can do what a man can do as well. The mentors and opportunities that Makerere University exposed to me to have made me rise through the ranks, over the years,” Kiguli admits.
Kiguli went to Mengo Primary School, Gayaza High School for six years and later pursued a Bachelor’s degree in medicine at Makerere University.

Baifa Arwinyo
Dr Baifa Arwinyo is the first female medical doctor to work in Karamoja sub region. She is a gynaecologist and for the last nine years, she has been working in Napak District at Matany hospital.
She has opened doors to other female doctors to work in Karamoja sub region.
“Having worked hand in hand with other partner organisations, the numbers of pregnant women accessing health care services and deliveries significantly increased from less than 15 per cent in 2010-2011 to 72 per cent to date,” Arwinyo says.
Although she feels detached from her family, she is delighted to serve women in hard-to-reach areas. “I made a decision to work in Karamoja. I left behind my two year old baby. I travel 20 hours every weekend to make time for my family and go back to work,” she adds.
She says: “A call was made to work but they wanted me to first interface with the community. I accepted the offer immediately and did not mind about working in a rural setting. There are unfamiliar diseases in rural areas. If you want to serve the neediest of people, saving lives takes a top position and do it in a rural set up. It is a rewarding and humbling experience.”
She has obtained education opportunities to advance her career after her contribution and commitment in the region.
She advises women to invest time in science courses. She went to Nebbi Primary School, Kibuli Secondary School and joined Mbarara University for a Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine. She also attained a master’s degree in obstetrics and gynaecology from Makerere University.

Rhoda Wanyenze
As the Dean School of Public Health at Makerere University, Prof Rhoda Wanyenze manages the school’s core activities of teaching, research and service projects.
She handles administrative roles and manages resources. She loves research and continues to implement independent research projects.
Wanyenze says: “My goal is to see my research work impacting society positively. In regard to organisational development, I have conducted institutional reviews and strengthened policies in several countries.”
She mentors and supports a number of graduate students, serves on boards of organisations including Aids Information Center, Uganda Aids Commission and Baylor Uganda.
For 25 years, she has served as a clinician, providing patient care in the UPDF Medical Services, as a manager of various public health programmes. She is a lecturer, researcher and now and working as an administrator at Makerere University.
Wanyenze is driven by impacting people’s lives despite the circumstances. She went to Nabisunsa Girls for O-Level and St Mary’s Namagunga for A-Level. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Medicine-surgery and a master of Public Health at Makerere. She holds a PhD from the University of Antwerp in Belgium.
Her biggest challenge as a clinician is doing her best for patients with limited resources, unsufficient equipment, working long and awkward hours to save lives.
She says: “A successful academic career requires balancing teaching, research and service that can be a challenge.”

Aisha Bataringaya Sekalala
She is a consultant orthodontist with special interest in cleft lip and palate care. She earned a German scholarship for a masters in orthodontics from the University of Western Cape in South Africa. She is the only Ugandan practicing orthodontist since 2014. She also lectures orthodontics at Uganda Christian University. Being a rare and hard-to-get into specialisation, lectured in a few countries on the continent, orthodontics is also a male dominated field, worldwide.
This, perhaps, explains why Bataringaya’s services are on an increasing demand. She went to Namagunga Primary School, Mount Saint Mary’s College, Namagunga and pursued a bachelor’s degree in dentistry, from Makerere University, after which she did a masters degree in Western Cape University.
She says: “At 15 years old, my medical journey started after getting fascinated by a white man. He had come to visit the nuns and I lived nearby. When I saw him, I asked him what he did for a living. He explained that he was an orthodontist. I had never heard of the term before. But from that moment, I knew I wanted to be like him one day.”
After completing her course in South Africa, Bataringaya discovered that there was more to dentistry than what she was exposed to back at home.
She adds: “Patients are our first priority and we must set standards and commit to do our best to save lives. My patients are not sick per say, they are concerned about their speech and jaws. Offering a quality service key.”
Sekalala loves interacting with patients, putting a smile on a patient’s face, building confidence and self-esteem in severe cases of speech struggles or faces that ceased to smile.
She attributes her success to good mentorship.