Work Hard, Play Hard - how we have fun at eHA

By Juliana Jacob

Winning as little as a candy or a bar of chocolate from playing trivia games during a busy day at our workstations makes all the hard work easy. At eHealth Africa, while we believe in working hard, we equally believe in striking a balance. Having fun while working reduces fatigue that may result in burnout.

A study by Ford et al, suggests that an environment is considered fun when it intentionally encourages initiatives and supports a variety of enjoyable and pleasurable activities that positively impact the attitudes and productivity of individuals. Because we prioritize the happiness and well-being of our team, we strive to create an environment where everyone can take a few minutes out of their busy schedules to unwind; no meetings, no scrolling through our task management tool, or not even reading emails.

Here are 3 employee engagement initiatives we introduced to revitalize our workplace to decrease stress and promote fresh creativity and job satisfaction. 

We get everyone involved
Thank God it’s Friday (TGIF) is a favorite of many of our staff because of the rationale behind it. We organize a series of activities every last Friday of the month to allow our team to unpack their month and approach the new month with a relaxed and fresh mindset. While some employees spend the time relaxing and unwinding, others engage in healthy competitions to determine which team wins the title for the month. Different departments take turns hosting the TGIFs.

We go outside
Our mission as an organization is to ensure that people in underserved communities can lead healthier lives through our work. We started our Community Development Initiative (CDI) as part of our efforts to give back to the communities where we work and live in. We identify the needs of these communities and look for ways to support them. These CDI projects also serve as team bonding opportunities outside our work. Recently, to celebrate Earth Day we planted 500 trees in Kano and Abuja. Also, we renovated 22 boreholes across 10 LGAs in Kano State, Borno State, and Abuja.   

The conversation-starter
What started as an informal lunchtime trivia game has since become the norm at eHealth Africa. Some Fridays, a subset of our team gather to play trivia games. You can simply call this learn and play, while everyone involved has a good time, they update their knowledge of projects, programs and solutions.

For us at eHA, fun at work is essential to our employees' happiness. We know fun means different things to different people on our team. From a random joke from a colleague to just gathering around the workstation for trivia games. But whatever their concept of fun is, we are leaving no stone unturned in the pursuit of our team’s happiness.

eHealth Africa among winners in 2021 edition of the Wiki Loves Africa Photo Contest

By Oladipo Olurishe

2nd Place Winner Wiki Loves Africa Photo Contest 2021

Our submission to the Wiki Loves Africa 2021 Photographic Competition came 2nd place out of over 8000 entries.

Wiki In Africa, the international organizers of the Wiki Loves Africa challenges the global photographic community each year to respond to a call for photographs of life in Africa along a specific theme. This year, the competition called for photographers to contribute images that visually interrogated the theme of Health + Wellness within the African context but looking at the positive aspects within that sector of African life.

The image which emerged as a global winner was shot at the Kano head office of eHealth Africa during a Malaria Microscopy Training conducted by our Laboratory team. The image was uploaded by Dr. Nirmal Ravi who leads the team and was present during the session.

Meet The Team - Sally Williams

Balancing work and personal life can be difficult. This is especially true if you have a demanding job like Sally Williams.

Sally is the Project Manager for Sierra Leone’s 117 Call Center and she leads a nation-wide multi-disciplinary 44-man team of District Coordinators, Project Coordinators, Administrative Support and Technical Consultants and the entire staff at the call center in Freetown. While being a project manager extraordinaire during the day, she is still able to find time daily for her passion, fitness, and exercise. 
Sally believes that teamwork is a large part of the reason she is successful in her role and can find time to ensure work/life balance. She relies on all members of her team to perform well in their individual roles and work together to accomplish the goals set for the team and because they’re successful in this, she is able to focus on strategic initiatives that have moved the 117 Call Center forward. Some of these strategic initiatives include transitioning the 117 Call Center from an ebola emergency hotline to a surveillance platform and the 117 Call Center rebranding efforts.

Sally receiving her Team of the Quarter certificate

She recognizes the fact that her team’s dedication and efforts are a key factor in achieving their goals and getting some of the accolades and milestones they are celebrating. Her team’s dedicated work is paying off. In Quarter 2 of 2019, Sally’s team was voted the winner of ‘’Team of the Quarter,’ award,’ one of eHA’s ways of recognizing teamwork, having fulfilled certain criteria-including outstanding performance, innovation, and quality, during the course of a given quarter.

“My role is a challenging but thrilling one. I have an affinity for teamwork. The favorite part of my job is interacting with my team in the districts because they are the ones in the field that go day-to-day out in the community spreading the message of 117. Their dedication is priceless.”

— Sally Williams

“When Sally is around us, you would hardly tell who is the boss. She mixes well but knows how to get us to do a good job. Her positive attitude towards us motivates us to work harder for best results.”

— Maseray Sesay, Project Assistant, 117 Call Center project

Sally works well with everybody, both within the 117 Call Center team and the eHA team as a whole, and is an inspiration to all. She is always encouraging to others and makes others feel comfortable enough to communicate openly and honestly with her. She works collaboratively, allowing everyone to bring their strengths and motivates them to identify and work on areas where they need to get stronger.

Sally loves teamwork but is also passionate about serving in an organization or team that shares her vision. Like eHA’s mission, she finds joy in serving underserved communities, and this is what makes her go the extra mile as a member of the #eHA team.

Sally with some members of her team

Sally bringing her passion to the workplace, leading fitness activities during our employee engagement events

“I love an organization that is dedicated to helping the underserved population. eHealth Africa is also a family-oriented workplace and that was appealing, especially when one is already far away from home. Knowing that our services to the community do not go unnoticed, excites me the most. Although we have trying times, the day to day challenges motivates me to do more!”

— Sally

Meet the Team - Maryam Haruna

What do you do when you have to get 30 people to 25 destinations?

We don’t know but Maryam Haruna does.

Maryam Haruna works with the operations team at our Kano campus as the Senior Associate in charge of travel. Here is how she works traveling and accommodation miracles for our staff coming in and out of base locations on a daily basis.

1. Be prepared, even in your sleep

Keeping track of travels is no mean feat! Sometimes, demands for tickets come at odd times and require urgent attention. Maryam’s strategy is to have her work tools on her at all times so that she can access and verify information and respond to travel requests. Of course, this is slightly easier for her because she used to be a Project Field Officer (PFO). Before joining the operations team, Maryam worked on several field tracking and disease surveillance projects and this experience helps her to anticipate and mitigate the challenges of field staff who require her support.

2. Think fast but pay attention to detail

In Maryam’s line of work, it is all too easy to mix up information about who is going where and when. She prevents this with her keen eye for details and her best friend, Google Calendar! Her calendar is one of her most priceless tools and she uses it to manage her time and keep track of appointments and deadlines.

Maryam at work

3. Communicate frequently and clearly

There will always be changes and last-minute developments to accommodation and travel bookings. Sometimes, flights can get delayed for hours leading to changes in pick-up and drop-off arrangements. Maryam has to ensure that she shares information with the fleet team, the staff member and any other stakeholders as soon as possible.

4. Reward yourself

After a long day, she congratulates herself with a pat on the back and a bowl of frozen mango slices.

Meet the Team - Masud Abdullahi

Masud Abdullahi is the face of eHealth Africa at the Katsina Emergency Operations Center (EOC).

As office manager, Masud makes sure that our polio eradication partners, who utilize the EOC have access to all amenities including steady electricity and internet connectivity at all times so that Routine Immunization reports and data from Supplementary Immunization Activities (SIAs) can be promptly reviewed and acted upon.

He has been the Office Manager at the  Katsina EOC for three and a half years now but insists that every day feels like the first day that he resumed. He is still in awe of the time and efforts that go into polio eradication and surveillance.  In addition to managing his eight-person team, he supervises how the assets and supplies that are deployed to the EOC are used. He represents eHA at meetings, builds and maintains relationships with external stakeholders and serves as eHA’s liaison person in Katsina state. 

Masud’s driving force is to never be the weak link in any organization or team. This mindset has helped him evolve from being just a boss to a leader who leads by example. He is especially proud of his team and in his eyes, his greatest achievement is that he is able to lead and build the capacity of his high-performing team so that they can support the organization's objectives and initiatives.

Despite his quiet exterior, he is very adventurous and curious about other places and cultures. He satisfies this curiosity by traveling and watching movies.

“I am proud of how far I have come. Since I started working at eHA, I have gained several skills from the numerous trainings that the organization has organized. I have learned how to use digital tools and solutions to support polio eradication activities such as mapping and microplan development. This has increased the value that I add to our work and my potential to be an asset to any other organization. The work at eHA is very rewarding. Last year, the EOC was a command center for Cerebrospinal Meningitis, Cholera, and Yellow Fever outbreaks and I am glad that I contributed to those efforts, in some capacity”

— Masud Abdullahi

Meet the Team - Mohamed Sulaiman Kamara

Meet Mohamed Sulaiman Kamara, a die-hard Arsenal fan and the Chief Accountant in our Sierra Leone office!

Mohamed joined eHealth Africa (eHA) as a Project Accountant in 2017 and was promoted to this current position after consistent hard work and excellent performance. Mohamed has always worked closely with his team to ensure that they are working towards their team goals and the organization’s overall goals.

Mohamed’s role is a challenging but exciting one, he and his team primarily support all projects by ensuring their accounting and finance processes and procedures are in line with best practices. He ensures the books are closed on a monthly basis in compliance with regulatory standards and makes sure that all the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed for audits. Mohammed also guides and mentors the project accountants, he provides technical support to them when needed and ensures his team remains high performing.

For him, the most rewarding part of his job is the challenges. These challenges help him think critically and innovatively to come up with solutions. Mohammed also enjoys working with diverse teams that include partners and stakeholders, they ensure that no two days are the same at eHA.

In addition to his love and passion for Accounting and Arsenal, Mohammed loves reading motivational books and listening to business news.

Our Iftar Celebration

eHealth Africa is a team of people from diverse cultures, educational backgrounds, and experiences, united by the desire to build stronger health systems across Africa.

One of our values at eHealth Africa is ownership—we work hard to become embedded in the fabric of the communities which we work in and we invest our time, ideas and resources to ensure that the quality of life in those communities is improved.

This week, our staff in Kano and Abuja hosted an Iftar celebration for members of neighboring communities. Iftar breaks the daylong fast that Muslims must observe during the month of Ramadan. eHA staff came together to distribute food packs and clothes to over 500 people in Kano and 200 people in Abuja. Our aim was to give back to the communities that we live and work in.

Here are pictures from the event in Kano. Ramadan Kareem!

eHA Staff at our Kano office preparing the Iftar packs

Lots of food and drinks to share

Iftar packs ready to go!

Some staff at our Kano office getting ready to distribute packs

Our Director, Finance and Administration joins the picture

Servers in line!!

The distribution begins in Kano

Calling our comrades to Iftar

The last few packs are distributed

A thumbs up for the eHA team

Zahir Baloum, Director, Finance and Administration and Hawa Kombian, Chief of Staff, grant an interview

My Internship at eHealth Africa Helped me Find my Path

My name is Juliana Jacob and I am a Helpdesk associate with the IT Engineering and Operations team.  I studied Mass Communication at Kogi State University and I am currently studying to earn my Masters in Public Relations at Bayero University, Kano. Up until January 2018 when I became an intern with the Helpdesk/ Network Operating Center at eHealth Africa, all I could think about was pursuing a career that would put me in the limelight and make me a household name.

Everything changed during my National Youth Service year in 2016. I worked at the Nassarawa Broadcasting Service (NBS) as a Radio/TV presenter but I had the opportunity to participate in a project as a data collector/ enumerator. I visited settlements in very remote and hard-to-reach locations and saw first-hand the deplorable state of health care in those communities. Many health facilities were dilapidated and had no vaccines or medicines. I decided there and then that I had to play my own part to improve healthcare for the people in such communities.

Someone told me about an eHealth Africa internship placement. I was immediately interested because eHA was a NGO and I knew it would give me the opportunity to touch lives in some way. I am not sure what I expected but when I found out that I would be placed with the Helpdesk/ Network Operating Center, I was worried. I didn’t see any similarities between my background in Mass Communications or my prior experience as an on-air person and working in Information Technology (IT). I had very little knowledge about IT or what it entailed, prior to this internship. My only experience with IT was a course that I took as an undergraduate student.

My time as an intern was the most challenging experience of my adult life but it was also the most enlightening. The Helpdesk is perhaps the busiest unit in the entire organization because it supports the delivery of all the projects in some capacity. We make sure that every team member has all the digital tools that they need to deliver their results. The helpdesk also functions as a customer call center and provides support, information, and solutions to eHA staff and partners. Working at the helpdesk helped me to internalize and exhibit the eHA values especially innovative problem-solving. In no time, I found that I had gained valuable skills such as interpersonal communications, and time and task management.

I have become familiar with IT terms and concepts—that I never thought I would encounter. I have fallen in love with IT and what is so amazing that I did not have an IT or tech background. Everything I know about IT and network operations, I learned from my team at eHealth Africa. Not only were they patient with me, but they also recommended several courses and seminars for my own personal development.

At first, I didn’t think that I could really be of any help to the communities with poor healthcare if I was not on the field or if I was not in the medical profession but my internship with the Helpdesk proved to me that everyone can do something to improve the quality of healthcare for vulnerable populations or communities. At eHealth Africa, everyone brings their strengths to the table and contributes their quota to achieve our mission and vision. We have staff who are not medical doctors or nurses but contribute to the improvement of health service delivery through their expertise in software development, logistics, construction or communications.

In February 2018, I became a full-time staff at eHA. One of the things I love most about eHealth Africa is that it focuses on applied knowledge rather than theoretical knowledge. To a large extent, what matters is getting the job done and not what you studied in school. This is why an intern with a Mass Communications background can become a full-time staff in one of the most technical fields in the organization.

My internship experience helped me to discover what I truly want to do career-wise. Even though my masters is in Public Relations, I have decided to pursue a career in IT. I am currently taking several online courses to attain some certifications in Information and Communications Technology (ICT). There are so many intersections between PR and ICT and I cannot wait to explore them.

I am truly grateful to my team and to eHA for this opportunity. If you are looking for an organization with bright, progressive people who are passionate about transforming health systems in Africa, eHA is definitely the place for you.

Meet the Team - Gift Ogbaje

Meet Gift Ogbaje, our “Director of First Impressions”. She is a security associate/ receptionist with the Operations unit at our Kano office in Nigeria.

She joined eHealth Africa 2 years ago. Gift’s primary responsibility is visitor management and she is the first person that our visitors meet when they walk through our doors. Gift takes this responsibility very seriously and has made a conscious effort to improve her interpersonal skills so that guests can feel welcome.

At eHA, our strongest asset is our people. Gift embodies our values here at eHA and has shown a remarkable aptitude for innovative problem solving by creating unique and workable solutions to problems within her team. One of her major successes was her simple solution to the traffic during on-site events with external participants. In place of the cumbersome process of generating and printing individual visitors tags, Gift created tags for the training which she could print ahead of time; as well as a register where each participant could enter their details. Her solution reduced the traffic by over 85% and made work much faster.

“At eHealth Africa, I am able to utilize my strengths such as accuracy and attention to detail, optimally. I collect and handle invoices from vendors, which I forward to the finance team for payments. My attention to detail aided by proper documentation has helped to reduce errors and delays in processing payments. I have also gained new skills in time management and multitasking which enable me to perform multiple tasks efficiently, without getting flustered.”

— Gift Ogbaje

We are proud to have Gift as part of our team, if you’re ever visiting our office in Kano, be sure to say a warm hello.

Meet The Team - Abdulai Dumbuya

Meet Abdulai Dumbuya, Senior Network Administrator,  in our Sierra Leone office.

Abdulai has been part of the eHealth Africa (eHA) team for approximately 4 years. He is a team lead and go-to person for issues relating to networking, troubleshooting,  systems backups, the configuration of network application systems, maintenance and administration of Wide Area Network (WAN) technologies and the execution of network disaster recovery plan.

He also the deputy to the ICT Manager and performs administrative duties for the ICT team, including assisting with the preparation of annual ICT budget and procurement for the department.

“eHA’s approach to serving underserved communities in Africa is one of my motivations for working with the organization.”

— Abdulai Dumbuya

One of Abdulai’s biggest contributions to eHA is reducing the operational cost of the 117 Call Center by over 50%. He achieved this by moving the 117 call center ICT infrastructure from an external provider to the Emergency Operations Center  (EOC), under the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS).

We are glad to have Abdulai on our team!

My Top 5 reasons why eHA is the best place to be an intern

By Samura Bangura

Procurement Intern at eHealth Africa (eHA) Sierra Leone in the Operations department

I am Samura Bangura, a Financial Services graduate from the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), University of Sierra Leone.  I am currently completing a diploma course in Supply Chain Management. I joined the eHA team in January 2019. eHealth Africa is a go-to place for a wonderful internship experience. I will tell you why:

1. At eHealth Africa, I am gaining the requisite skills and experience to begin my career

I joined eHA, believing the opportunity would help me reach my career goals and sharpen my skill set. I do not regret joining the team. I have always wanted to serve in an organization that would give me the experience I need to begin my career. At eHA, I am able to put into practice what I had learned during my four years at the University and learn new skills.

2. eHealth Africa is a technology-driven organization

I remember thinking that the procurement unit had so many tasks and processes that I was not conversant with, and was worried that I wouldn’t be able to master them. One of the first things that struck me about eHA was the use of technology to make working more efficient. Technology aids almost all processes, including the signing of documents. I was like; “wow! this is great’’. There was so much to learn. I learned how to use different apps and platforms for financial management, document storage, and even task management.

3. Opportunity for learning and growth

At eHA, I have learned so much in a short time. Now, I know how to execute a procurement process, from bid evaluation to processing vendor payments. I also learned how to do administrative tasks for the procurement department, including organizing procurement committee meetings! All this, within just a few months of starting my internship with eHA. I love the fact that eHealth Africa provides opportunities for everyone to learn and grow in their career and in any other areas of interest. One of my biggest takeaways from eHA is to deliver every task with utmost diligence. The experiences and knowledge that I have gained will be mine for the rest of my life. I am very grateful to eHA.

4. Staff are welcoming and eager to help

I love working at eHealth Africa! My colleagues ae very welcoming and eager to help. By the third day of my internship, I quickly realized that there was no need to worry because my supervisor is very inspiring, hardworking and patient with me. She trained me  one on one, for a week, so that I would be accustomed to how things are done in the procurement unit. She encouraged me to ask questions and to seek clarification whenever I was unsure of something.
5. Interns are truly part of the team
It’s true, no one treats me differently, even though I am an intern. We are included in all aspects of the organization and our work is just as invaluable as any other team members’. There’s no sense of “real staff” vs. “interns”, we are all one team. For example, the procurement team in Sierra Leone was commended for being the Team of the Quarter, during an employee event on 29th of March 2019, marking the end of the first quarter.

Samura receiving a certificate from Jatin Hiranandani, Deputy Director, Operations

“I feel proud to be part of the winning team. Surprisingly, as an intern, I was also given a certificate, even though I wasn’t expecting one. This shows that eHA does not discriminate between regular staff and interns.”

— Samura Bangura

Team of the Quarter- Procurement Team

Are you interested in applying for an internship with eHA? Click here to see the list of open internships and apply now.

Meet the Team: Muhammed-Naziru Halliru

Meet Muhammed-Naziru Halliru, a State Coordinator with our program delivery team!

Naziru is involved in planning, organizing and delivering activities to ensure that the objectives of the Geo-Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development (GRID3) project are achieved. Following the mapping of the 36 states of Nigeria, he coordinated stakeholder engagement at the state level to garner government support for the use and application of geospatial data for better economic planning, resource distribution and decision making across a variety of sectors including health, education, agriculture, housing, and transport.

In addition to this, he supports capacity building activities for data managers at the State Ministry of Health, State Primary Health Care Management Board and the Health Management Information System department to equip them to manage, analyze and use the data stored on the GRID3 portal.

Although he has been with eHealth Africa for only a year, Naziru has made very significant contributions to his team and project. Under his supervision, the GRID3 project mapped 10 states across three geopolitical zones: North Central, North East, and North West and collected geospatial data on 19 point of interest categories. This data has been instrumental in improving the impact and effectiveness of polio eradication efforts in these states.

Naziru credits eHA with his new exposure and familiarity with technological tools which have enabled him to achieve his work goals more efficiently. eHA, according to him, has improved his communication and stakeholder engagement skills, which he believes will be invaluable to him in the long run.

“I am particularly proud that I am now able to use modern data management systems and technologies to deliver my role successfully. My work at eHealth Africa has also given me the opportunity to meet and engage with high-profile government officials including governors to advocate for the use of reliable geospatial data for better decision- making.”

— Muhammed-Naziru

Meet the Team - Sylvia Kalley

Meet Sylvia Kalley, our Grants and Contracts Senior Manager,  who works in our Sierra Leone office!

Sylvia joined eHealth Africa (eHA) approximately 2 years ago. She plays an integral role at eHA, as she supports the entire project and program portfolio of eHA, across our country offices. She leads the grants and contracts department and is ultimately responsible for the effective management of the full life cycle of projects, from pre-award to close-out.

She manages a team of four, who all contribute to ensuring that the Grants Management office meets the requirements of our clients. When Sylvia first joined the team, she focused on identifying gaps with regards to Grants Management and better internal controls for meeting donor requirements and fostering accountability, in her first year. Now, in her second year, she leads her team to address those gaps and create solutions for better grants and contracts management.

Sylvia’s biggest contribution has been the formalizing of the Grants Management Office including the establishment of the New Business Development Department. Having a formalized office allows for a one to one ratio between a member of our department and each contract within the eHA portfolio. This oversight allows the organization to meet the requirements of each of its contracts as well as improve our credibility with our clients.

Sylvia is particularly proud of her achievements in streamlining the Award Set Up Process for the organization. Before the establishment of this process, visibility regarding signed contracts was quite limited to a few. In collaboration with the larger Finance & Administration team, they created a thorough award set up and project extension notice which provides key information to set up a project in their accounting system once the official contract is signed.

We are happy and proud to have Sylvia as part of our eHealth Africa team.

Would you like to be a part of our team? Click here to find out more.

Welcoming Micheline Ntiru to eHealth Africa’s Board of Directors

At eHealth Africa, our greatest strength is our people. We believe in attracting and working with passionate, motivated individuals who add value to the work that we do to build stronger health systems across Africa. We are pleased to announce the appointment of Micheline Ntiru as a member of eHA’s Board of Directors.

Micheline joins Andrew Karlyn, My T. Le and our Executive Directors, Evelyn Castle and Adam Thompson to provide professional governance, mentorship to senior leadership, guidance on critical organizational functions, and global representation in order to support and strengthen eHA.

Micheline has 20 years of experience in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) growth, impact investment, sustainability, and public health management globally. She is a coach and business facilitator for the SEED Program at Stanford University’s Global Business School, an initiative to transform business and leadership practice among high-performing CEOs of SMEs in Africa. In addition, she provides portfolio and deal structuring advice to private equity and venture capital investors in Europe and North America.

Within the public health space, she has held several management and advisory positions with leading nonprofit organizations such as Care International and Helen Keller International, on thematic areas such as maternal and child health, Malaria and HIV/AIDS and public health nutrition.

To learn more about Micheline and the other members of our Board of Directors, visit the “Our People” page on our website. We look forward to working with her in the months and years to come.