Enyantu Ifenne

"It’s like a blind spot," Ifenne said, adding that her hometown of Otukpo has an HIV/AIDS infection rate near 18 percent. "Sometimes policymakers don’t see the numbers," she said. The result, she asserted, can be a gap between regional need and political commitment.

Increased research of localized HIV/AIDS trends is needed, she said. Recognizing that need propelled Ifenne to come to HSPH nine months ago, where she has studied methods to document health patterns in communities ravaged by HIV/AIDS. She hopes to use her data-gathering skills to improve advocacy for health services and AIDS prevention.

Ifenne trained in the late 1970s as a pediatrician at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, followed by a residency in Britain. In 1983, she returned to her home country to practice medicine. Then, Nigeria’s booming economy nosedived. She quickly found herself treating children with preventable ailments like anemia–often caused by a nutritional deficiency–and then being forced to return children to homes that had little food. The situation was especially appalling, Ifenne said, after "coming straight from Britain where everything worked, and all you had to do was ask for what you needed. In Nigeria, there were many determinants that impacted how much care I could give."

Frustrated, she dove into politics to enact social changes that would improve health care. First as a local politician and then as a state minister of education, Ifenne focused on women’s reproductive rights. After a two-year stint as Director General in charge of women’s affairs in the President’s Office, Ifenne ran unsuccessfully for the office of deputy governor of Benue State. She then took time off to focus on her four children.

In 1996, Ifenne took a position at the Center for Development and Population Activities, an NGO based in Washington, D.C. that promotes reproductive health, democracy, and governance. During her seven-year post, Ifenne studied the rampant spread of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, often traveling around her home country and witnessing firsthand the negative social impact on communities.

"Every community to which I went in Nigeria brought a growing realization that the community’s dynamics were becoming dislocated because of HIV/AIDS," she said. "But there was a lack of documentation." She added, "What Harvard has done for me is strengthen me and reinforce the urgency that I feel about the crisis in Africa. HSPH has provided me with the skills and confidence to advocate."

--CH