Africa's Brightest Making a Difference at Home

Africa's Brightest Making a Difference at Home

Dr. Sabrina Bakeera-Kitaka could have joined the thousands of medical professionals that leave Africa every year. Through an innovative Accordia program, however, she received the financial support, mentorship, and opportunity to make a difference at home. Following a highly competitive process, Dr. Kitaka became an Infectious Disease Fellow in 2003, and is now one of an elite group enrolled in Accordia’s Nelson Sewankambo Clinical Scholars Program. As a Sewankambo Scholar, she has the opportunity to train and conduct research at the world-class Infectious Diseases Institute. The program, funded in large part by a grant from the Gilead Foundation, provides ongoing mentorship by internationally recognized leaders in the field.

Dr. Kitaka has already made a significant difference in the lives of those living with infectious diseases. She heads the teen clinic at Mulago hospital, a program she launched in 2003 to address the specific needs of teenagers living with HIV/AIDS. Many of her patients acquired HIV as babies from their mothers and have faced the stigma and hopelessness associated with the disease throughout their entire lives.

Dr. Kitaka realizes the importance of making adolescent patients acutely aware of how the disease can affect them and be transmitted to others. She also recognizes the sensitivity that adolescents require when being taught how to protect themselves and their sexual partners. “They want to be respected. They want people to believe in them. They want to be empowered in their own healthcare,” she says.

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