Sarah Anyango

My current job role is the Deputy Director of Clinical Services / Maternal Health Lead / Lecturer at the Department of family medicine at Partners In Health Liberia, with a background of being a medical doctor with specialisation in obstetrics and gynaecology and already working as technical person. 

I realised I needed the support in understanding the concept of how to run different public or global health programmes in relation to the work that l am doing, as well as do research to understand the root cause of the recurring Preventable Maternal Death, low uptake of contraceptives in the African setting, and also understand more on Policy development. 

I was looking for an opportunity to study while working and the University of Stirling stood out amongst other universities in terms of flexibility in study time and hence being the best choice for people in full-time employment. Though the course is fully online, you get to interact with the Faculty members and student colleagues without getting to go on campus. Study times were flexible, and the tuition fee is affordable, as Stirling put consideration students from underprivileged background especially in the low-income countries.

This course had a lot of impact on my career. It enabled me to gain confidence as a Leader in the organisation and also to start thinking out of the box – not only looking at treating the disease as a clinician but also focusing on how to prevent the disease and leading teams to conduct Evaluation of the Programmes at my workplace to understand the root cause of the disease leading to preventable death. 

As I am also teaching a number of healthcare workers, it has enabled me to impart skills in conducting qualitative research at my workplace, hence impacting the teams I supervise and mentor.

The teaching staff were very supportive in all aspects including paying attention to details, encouraging the students, they were selfless and very inclusive in the way they interact with the students, giving you the courage to continue with the online studies despite the challenges that come with it, especially for students in the low-income countries like my country. 

At Stirling, you get opportunity to learn from your peers through the group sessions that the students are provided during the online study time, the teaching materials provided to enable you as a student to gain an in-depth understanding or knowledge of the subject matter, the timely feedback from the lecturers was a plus.

I would like to appreciate the lecturers starting from the Director of Master of Public Health Online, Dr Erica Gadsby and her team. Thank you so much for imparting knowledge to everyone without discrimination, you are impacting a whole generation of health workers who in turn will use this knowledge to make the world a better place.