MARCAD PhD Fellow, Virtue Fiawokome De-Gaulle, awarded an African Researchers’ Small Grant

Virtue Fiawokome De-Gaulle in Ghana, a MARCAD PhD fellow, has been awarded an African Researchers’ Small Grant for her research on “Ivermectin-based Community Mass Treatment: Perspective for Accelerating the soil transmitted helminths Elimination in Cameroon and Ghana”.

Virtue is one of the sixteen researchers (10 males and 6 females) from eight African countries selected as the fifth cohort of the Program (SGP V) by the Coalition for Operational Research on Neglected Tropical Disease (COR-NTD) and the African Research Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (ARNTD).

Reacting to the news of her fellowship, Virtue said " I feel humbled and motivated at the same time. As a young African researcher, I am encouraged that there are funding opportunities available for us to advance our research concepts into activities, with the ultimate aim of contributing to health research which will either, improve implementation strategies delivery, and or policy for a strengthened health system."

African Researchers’ Small Grants Program aims to contribute to the World Health Organization’s Roadmap: “Ending the neglect to attain the Sustainable Development Goals: A road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021–2030.”

The MARCAD PhD Fellow, Virtue's research focuses on Soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), a group of parasitic nematodes causing significant morbidity mainly in the younger population (pre and school-age children) in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Her project seeks to conduct a population-based study to assess the impact of IVM-based MDA on STHs in settings co-endemic with onchocerciasis or lymphatic filariasis in comparison to STH endemic areas where ALB/MZB-based MDA has been implemented, across different STH epidemiological settings in Ghana and Cameroon.

According to Virtue, her MARCAD fellowship and the knowledge and skills she acquired throughout the program played an important role in her new achievement.

''The MARCAD programme not only funded my PhD degree to advance my knowledge and research skills, but also organized various workshops with the grant and academic writing workshop being a good jumpstart for grants application for beginners like myself,'' said Virtue Fiawokome De-Gaulle.

Still speaking about her fellowship, Virtue highlighted the positive impact that the partnership between MARCAD institutions has had on her career as a young African researcher.

Virtue said "being a young Ghanaian researcher, whose research experience was limited to that context, the partnership between the MARCAD institutions gave me the research exposure in another African country context.  Specifically, the MARCAD programme afforded me the opportunity to travel to Cameroon to pursue my doctoral degree in Public Health at the University of Yaoundé I (UYI). Through that, I had the opportunity to conduct part of my research in that setting, as well as collaborate with other young researchers and conceptualize the research we anticipate conducting. This grant is the result of one such collaborative work with another PhD student (Mr. Arnauld Efon) from UYI. "