We’re back! 300 Student Ambassadors. 10 Schools. 6 Youth Trainers. School has resumed for another academic year so we’re continuing our DRASA Youth Ambassador program! Who are the DRASA Ambassadors? All students who were selected to be members of the “DRASA Health and Hygiene Club” in their secondary schools are called DRASA Ambassadors. What are…
Chew Bitter Kola: Fake News that Harms Public Health
Chew bitter kola. Drink bleach. Bathe in salt water. Drink salt water. Get nano silver the “magic Ebola drug.” These are just some examples of the kinds of misinformation and fake news that were flying around during Nigeria’s Ebola outbreak. And they were all harmful. Let’s look at the example of drinking salt water. There…
Bringing Healthcare to 250,000 People
Today we attended the opening of the rehabilitated Ikola Primary Health Centre (PHC) by Japanese Ambassador Yutaka Kikuta. The Japanese Embassy collaborated with the local Street2School Initiative on this project. Before this health centre was rehabilitated, more than 250,000 people in the community had no access to healthcare services. Street2School Initiative’s Founder Ms. Tosin Taiwo…
Tuberculosis is the World’s Deadliest Infectious Disease
Did you know that tuberculosis is the world’s deadliest infectious disease? Yet, TB still remains a major public health problem Nigeria, especially as it mostly affects the poorest and most vulnerable people. In fact, Nigeria has the 2nd largest burden of TB in Africa and is among the 10 countries that accounted for 76% of…
Our Changing Climate: A Friendly Environment for Deadly Creatures
What do you think is the deadliest animal in the world? Answer choices are: a lion, a shark, a black mamba snake, or a mosquito? If you guessed the last answer choice, you are correct! Typically, when we think of deadly animals, we think of animals like lions, sharks, or snakes. But the mosquito is…
Exploring the Private Sector’s Role in Health Security: A4EPR
If the Nigerian economy lost about 4 billion naira due to outbreaks in 2017 alone, how will we prevent additional losses as we continue to have more and more outbreaks? On the 6th of August, we gathered with other representatives from the private sector, the health sector, and civil society to discuss the Nigeria Centre…
Zika Virus is Still in Nigeria and People Exposed to Ebola May Have Immunity
Ebola, Zika, and HIV: all 3 have been (or still are) present in Nigeria. So do Ebola survivors have immunity? Do we have the Zika virus in Nigeria? These were some of the questions raised during the University of Lagos Pro-Chancellor’s Distinguished Endowed Annual Lecture titled “Responding to Nigeria’s Disease Outbreaks and Epidemics: Ebola, Zika…
Merck eHealth Meetup: Digitizing an Offline Industry
On Wednesday 4th of July, we participated in Merck’s inaugural Lagos eHealth Meetup. The goals of the meetup were to provide a platform for conversations around the challenges and solutions in scaling health innovations in West Africa and to serve as a meetup for startups and game-changers in the health sector. DRASA believes in using…
Malaria in Rainy Season: Ronke’s Story
“Rain rain, go away, come again another day, little children want to play,” Ronke and her friends chorused as they played under the rain. After about 30 minutes of a torrential downpour, causing the kids to rush back to their houses as the rain refused to listen to their plea, the rain eventually stopped. As…
Connecting the Dots in the Social Sector
Today we attended a social sector networking event organized by Young Adult Professionals & Entrepreneurs (YAP&E) in collaboration with Philanthropy Circuit and hosted at the Ford Foundation. As a breakfast dialogue, the event provided a platform for a pool of like-minded people working in the social sector to know what other organizations exist in this…
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