Zeenith Ebrahim, ’24
From: Cape Town, South Africa
Degrees Held: MPA, Harvard Kennedy School
MBA, Oxford University
Email: zeenith_ebrahim@hsph.harvard.edu
Zeenith is the founder of Jamii Life, a social enterprise that aims to redesign home care delivery — to increase accessibility, transparency, and quality care and peace of mind through technology – in South Africa, and eventually across Africa – by providing a technology platform for patients, families, and home caregivers and training unemployed community members to provide the service in their communities. Jamii Life is inspired by Zeenith’s grandmother who was bedridden for 16 years.
Before this, Zeenith led GE Healthcare’s Affordable Care business and Indirect Channel Partners across Africa. In this role, she focused on enabling access to healthcare technology across the African continent, including Sudan, Libya, Morocco, Ethiopia, Egypt, etc. Zeenith spent a decade in rail infrastructure leading several of the continent’s largest projects across Africa, including South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, etc. This enabled her to work with African Governments to leverage infrastructure projects to create jobs and transfer skills and technology. During her time as the GM & CEO of GE South Africa Technologies, GE localized locomotive production creating thousands of jobs and training and transferring skills to thousands more.
Zeenith received a Mid-Career MPA from Harvard Kennedy School (as Harvard South Africa Fellow); a Master in Business Administration degree from Oxford University’s Said Business School (as a Nelson Mandela Scholar) and a Bachelor of Business Science (Finance) degree from the University of Cape Town. Zeenith plans to use her time at HSPH as a DrPH candidate to build her public health expertise to inform her social impact work; to improve the lives of low-income communities like the one she grew up in and to make an impact in at scale in South Africa and across the continent.
Student News and Publications
October 2022
Zeenith Ebrahim, DrPH ’23, founder of Jamii Life, was awarded the runner up Health Access Prize. Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures, a fund within the Johnson & Johnson Foundation, collaborated with MIT Solve to fund the Health Access Prize to enable innovators to bring their ideas to life and grow their impact.
September 2022
Zeenith Ebrahim, DrPH ’23, founder of Jamii Life, was selected as one of MIT Solve’s Class of 40 Tech-Based Social Entrepreneurs Addressing Global Challenges. Solve’s expert judges selected the new 2022 Solver and Indigenous Communities Fellow Class from over 1,100 applicants from 117 countries and 46 Native Tribes.
April 2022
Zeenith Ebrahim, DrPH ’23, was awarded the Echoing Green Fellowship which helps to further the work of 18 social entrepreneurs advancing innovative solutions for entrenched social problems, from systemic racism to health inequity, economic disparity, and poverty. Previous Fellows include former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama (’91), political commentator Van Jones (’94), and the organization’s own President, Cheryl L. Dorsey (’92).
