ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2020
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. In the three months the application was open in 2020, 15,159 young leaders applied to join the Class of 2020 on 1,458 campuses across 135 nations. 80 campuses worldwide (just 6%) were selected to host the 1,000+ Millennium Fellows. The Class of 2020 is bold, innovative, and inclusive.
UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT ESTHER SYOMBUA NDAKA, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2020.
United States International University Africa | Nairobi, Kenya | Advancing SDG 3 & UNAI 10
" The dual burden of disease is a major challenge for many low and middle income countries. They have to tackle not only infectious diseases, but also chronic (non-communicable diseases). Coming from a family with a history of diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure; and living in a community where almost every person knows of a family member or friend who suffers from a chronic condition, I believe that deliberate effort must be made to find solutions that can contribute to curbing the rise of preventable chronic diseases. I am extremely excited to be a Millennium Fellow and to have this opportunity to connect with other change makers from across the globe. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Afrika Counts
Afrika Counts will focus on SDGs 3, 10 and 17 as our project aims to bridge the data gap on health disparities and inequalities in Africa. We discovered that there is a glaring lack of all rounded data in regards to Africa and health thus our aim is to obtain data that will be representative of Africans in terms of statistics and all data regarding health. Our social impact needs a top to bottom approach thus for our change to happen at a community level, the conversations need to begin at the top.
Our impact will be measured in the following ways:
a. The number of partnerships we can obtain.
b. Social media engagement.
c. Responses from surveys and polls.
d. Developing an app through which researchers and healthcare workers will feed data into. The app will be linked to a server that pulls all the data gathered and organize into an open access database that will be available for scientists and students.
This project will enable us to contribute to evidence informed decision making that is fully representative of all the African people across the world as well as contributing to making good health policies.
About the Millennium Fellow
Esther Syombua Ndaka is an Epidemiology and Biostatistics major. Passionate about serving others, human rights and access to healthcare and education for all. In her free time, data cruncher, board-game lover, trivia and pun enthusiast.
