I am applying to the XXXX School of Public Health primarily because of the centrality of its mission to improve health care in the Developing World, especially Africa. I have a chance of being accepted to your program because of the potential that I have for contributing to the fight to help some of the world’s most vulnerable infants and children to survive in critically hostile environments. I also deeply appreciate the way that this struggle in my home country, Nigeria, is a global struggle, full of implications for other frontiers of the battle against AIDS, Malaria, Polio and even diarrhea. I seek lifetime immersion in the study of how and why African mothers and babies often die as a direct result of the birthing process.
My earliest levels of awareness of the medical profession resulted from assisting my physically challenged cousin during my childhood. When I learned that his suffering resulted from our failure to vaccinate against this disease, something lit up in my brain and I began to find greater direction and purpose in my studies. By the time that we lost both my aunt and her baby during childbirth, my destiny had become sealed in my mind as I became determined that someday I would make my mark in health care as a physician and surgeon with a special dedication to obstetrics and gynecology.
Last year I finished medical school and this year I co-founded an NGO (Health Forte Nigeria Initiative) providing basic health services in certain rural areas of southwest Nigeria. We are funded by the non-governmental business sector, a solidarity that is of critical importance for ongoing public health development. I have also worked in PEP-FAR clinics; and I have participated in so many failed PMTCT initiatives that this has become a very personal cause for me as well. I am an optimist, and it is my generation that will transform Nigeria to a land where everyone will have access to affordable health care and free emergency care. I keenly look forward to helping to eradicate malaria and other vaccine-preventable diseases in Sub Saharan Africa. My optimism and my passion for innovative research and development in public health initiatives for the Developing World were enhanced by my visit to the UK where I had the privilege of completing a course on Health Economics last October 2010.
As a physician and surgeon, I have acquired special training in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and it is in this area that I especially look forward to making important contributions. I have extensive experience within Nigerian hospitals and the provision of health care services, both public and private. As a Medical Officer and General Medical Practitioner, I take pride in serving as an integral member of the team responsible for the development of health care provision.
I was especially honored by being invited to serve as a member of the panel responsible for developing the 2011 Health Care Bill recently submitted to the Nigerian National Assembly. I have established numerous working relationships at every level of Nigerian health care sectors and have developed a special interest in the development of collaborative liaisons between health care institutions and the business community, working to secure funding and support for critical health care projects under development by NGOs, including large hospitals.
Emphasizing the importance of preventive medicine stands at the center of my intellectual and professional world. XXXX’s School of Public Health is my first choice for graduate school because it is the flagship program that is the optimal location for me to be able to most fully develop my capacity as a researcher, forever laboring to decipher the complex human, ethical, and politico-economic factors that undergird the challenges of public health care in today’s Africa.
MPH Personal Purpose Statement Africa