Introducing the dynamic team of experts

As we kick of this exciting project, our first blog post is devoted to introducing organizations and individuals involved in the project. A number of implementing partners, direct stakeholders and various professionals have been engaged since the first day of this project.

Among those key professionals, we are very pleased to welcome two newcomers - Samuel and Kefyalew who formally joined the team last month.

Samuel Tewolde (MA) is a gender expert with extensive gender transformative programming experiences aimed at promoting gender equity for HIV and violence prevention. Prior to joining this project, he helped develop and implement an intervention, delivered via the Ethiopian coffee ceremony that aims to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV) in Butajira, Ethiopia. He helped develop 3 intervention curricula and also played an active role in the intervention implementation including providing training and coaching for over 60 facilitators and overseeing the implementation during the main study.

Samuel also played a key role in implementing the PEPFAR funded Male Norms Initiative program considered and accepted as a model program. In 2015, findings from this work were published in the American Journal of Public Health. Samuel has also coordinated a number of successful gender focused projects in the areas of HIV/AIDS and violence prevention, child development and the prevention of child sexual abuse and exploitation. As one of the key players of the Butajira study, from which our project aims to adapt the intervention from non-humanitarian to a humanitarian setting and learn from previous experiences, we are excited to have him on board and tap in to his expertise. Samuel will serve this project as Intervention Specialist for Emergency Operations.

Kefyalew Asmara (MPH) is the other team member who joined us in the role of Intervention Coordinator. He will be using his clinical and project coordination expertise developed through many sources including from his work as a field manager for the Butajira research project. He was instrumental in recruiting and training 58 enumerators and 60 facilitators, coordinating, supervising and monitoring all aspects of the project fieldwork. His impressive work in Butajira project earned him his current position in this project. Kefyalew was also a field coordinator in the Podoconiosis and Lymphatic Filariasis National Survey implemented by the Ethiopian Public Health Institute. In addition, he also has experience in a refugee setting through his work in Somaliland coordinating projects focused on family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention. His wealth of experience will be a great asset to this project.

In addition, the project team includes the following prominent and dynamic professionals. Dr. Negussie Deyessa from Addis Ababa University School of Public Health. Dr. Deyessa led the Ethiopian arm of the WHO multi-country study on IPV and a study on GBV in Eritrean refugee camps.

Dr. Vandana Sharma, a researcher at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) until 2015, and now at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, brings expertise in impact evaluation including randomized control trials (RCTs) to evaluate GBV and HIV interventions. Dr. Deyessa and Dr. Sharma are the co-Principal Investigators of the RCT of the Butajira intervention from which this current project is learning.

Dr. Jennifer Scott is from Harvard Medical School and has designed qualitative and quantitative studies on GBV in conflict settings. She is affiliated with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative Women in War Program. Dr. Sharma and Dr. Scott will serve as co-principal investigators for this project.

Dr. Mulu Muleta is the Country Representative and Senior Medical Advisor for WAHA Ethiopia with research and policy expertise.

Tinou Paï Blanc will serve as Program/Desk Manager at WAHA International headquarters. She has expertise in the areas of operations and projects management in development and humanitarian settings.

Eric Nicholas Otieno is also another asset to our project with his clinical medicine and health systems management background, and rich experience managing programs. Eric has diverse expertise in health focused programs in Kenya, Somalia, Somaliland and in Dollo Ado. Currently he is the program coordinator for WAHA Ethiopia.

Women and Health Alliance International (WAHA) is an international non-profit, nongovernmental organization based in France with the over-arching goal of addressing maternal and neonatal health in disadvantaged communities throughout the world. In Dollo Ado, WAHA International has been implementing comprehensive reproductive and maternal health programs since 2013 including the provision of medical care to GBV survivors. WAHA International using its well established resources and expertise will be the local implementing partner for our project.

Other organizations such as Administration for Refugees and Returnees Affairs (ARRA), UNHCR, Partnership for Pastoralists Development Agency (PAPDA), International Rescue Committee (IRC), International Medical Corps, local government and community bodies are also expected to be engaged in this project and contribute for its success.

These diverse team members, as well as the other support staff whose names did not appear in this post, are the driving force of this exciting project. As women and men throughout the world celebrated International Women’s Day this week, our next blog post will focus on this topic. We look forward to sharing how this project will contribute to the well-being of men and boys in general and women and girls in particular.