Prof. Amina Abubakar
Email : AAbubakar@kemri-wellcome.org Current Students
Dorcas Magai
Dorcas Magai
My educational background includes a Masters in Clinical and Developmental Psychopathology from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, in The Netherlands and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Kenyatta University, Kenya.
One in four people globally will be affected by mental health and neuorological disorders at some point in their lives, placing mental disorders among the major causes of disease and disability globally. My great interest is understanding the etiology, diagnostics and intervention of psychopathology in children and adolescents. My focus is to determine the development of psychopathology; establishing personal, social, and biological factors that contribute to this development; the use of scientific knowledge to improve detection and diagnostics of psychopathology; and how we can influence children and adolescents’ psychopathology through preventive and clinical interventions.
My PhD project is on the long-term consequences of severe ill-health during the first 28 days of life on thinking and learning abilities, and mental health of school aged children. Specifically, I’m interested in neonatal conditions such as yellow coloring of the skin (neonatal jaundice) and inadequate oxygen flow in the brain (hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy), which are likely to injure the child’s brain and affect their development.
By examining the adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes of neonatal insults, we hope to contribute to identifying salient points of intervention to enhance the quality of life of children who experienced these neonatal insults.
Derrick Ssewanyana
Derrick is Public Health enthusiast who is currently pursuing his PhD studies in Adolescent Health at Utrecht University, Netherlands. He previously graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Health Science from Makerere University in Uganda and a M.Sc. Public Health from University of Southern Denmark.
His current PhD research is focused on defining the forms, patterns and underlying factors for health risk behavior of adolescents in low resource settings at the Kenyan Coast. His special focus is to examine these forms of behavior among adolescents infected or affected by HIV/AIDS at the Kenyan coast. His research will help to adapt culturally appropriate tools for measuring health risk behavior among adolescents. It will also fill important knowledge gaps for example on the impact of HIV associated executive functioning deficits and other potential determinants of risky behavior among HIV infected and affected adolescents. This shall benefit interventions and policy in the field of HIV care and management and adolescent health in general.
Derrick has previously worked on projects in water and sanitation, humanitarian healthcare, sexual health and substance abuse management programs in East Africa and Europe. Derrick enjoys sports, nature, charity drives and music.
Publications
- Perspectives on underlying factors for unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle of adolescents at a Kenyan coastal setting. Ssewanyana, D., Abubakar, A., Van Baar, A., Mwangala, P. N., & Newton, C. R. (2018). Frontiers in Public Health, 6,11 doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2018.00011
- Health Risk Behaviour among Adolescents Living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Ssewanyana, D., Mwangala, P. N., van Baar, A., Newton, C. R., & Abubakar, A. (2018). BioMed Research International.
- Health risk behavior among chronically ill adolescents: a systematic review of assessment tools. Ssewanyana, D., Nyongesa, M. K., Baar, A., Newton, C. R., & Abubakar, A. (2017). Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 11(1), 32.
- Young people’s and stakeholders’ perspectives of adolescent sexual risk behavior in Kilifi County, Kenya: A qualitative study. Ssewanyana, D., Mwangala, P. N., Marsh, V., Jao, I., van Baar, A., Newton, C. R., & Abubakar, A. (2017). Journal of Health Psychology, 23(2):188-205. doi: 1359105317736783.
Kashero Kaingu
I have a background in social sciences and I am currently pursuing a Master of Science in Public health at Pwani University. I have completed my coursework and am now doing my project. My project is on HIV amongst adolescents in Kilifi and my topic is ‘’Academic achievements and experiences among adolescents living with HIV in Kilifi.’’ My main inspiration towards doing a Master’s in Public health and a project that gives emphasis to adolescents living with HIV is embedded on the view that there has been little effort on these adolescents which in turn will affect the health outcomes of the general population in the near future and therefore something needs to be done to salvage the situation. My supervisors for this particular project will be Professor Amina Abubakar and Allan Davies in whose tutelage I expect to grow competently in research.
Ezra Too
I pursued Nursing and Public health in my undergraduate level at Pwani University and currently pursuing a postgraduate diploma in health research methods; a course that is jointly offered by Pwani University and Kemri-Wellcome trust. My project is titled, ‘Burden and risk factors for common mental health disorders and substance abuse disorders among young people living with HIV in low and middle income countries.’ Supervised by professor Amina Abubakar and Moses Kachama. I aspire to be at the forefront of the research field, to be part of a community that aims to make the world a better place through research.
Past Students
Agnes Mutua
Agnes Mutua
Agnes is a results-oriented, energetic, early career researcher, who is passionate about applying health research to address critical questions in public health, to prevent premature death and disability. She enjoys travelling, playing volleyball and mentoring young children.
She graduated from Kenyatta university with a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental health. She worked for 2 years under the Ministry of Health (Kenya) and gained in-depth experience in public health operations including community nutrition and disease surveillance. She is currently undertaking an integrated review of literature, to determine whether lack of adequate Iron and vitamin D during early childhood, has any effect on child development, in the short and long term. She is looking forward to being involved in health research programs in Kenya and beyond, that are aimed at finding practical solutions to a myriad of health problems affecting the community.
Esther Chongwo
Esther Chongwo is a holder of Bachelor of Science (Nursing and Public Health) from Kenyatta University.
Her project is on assessing mental abilities, psychological and the social aspects among adults living with epilepsy in Kilifi, Kenya. The project aims at expanding the body of knowledge for policy development on the management of people living with epilepsy thus improve the quality of life and health outcomes in people living with epilepsy. She has keen interests in psychiatry and intends to secure a master’s programme in the field of mental health.
Jane Wangui
Jane graduated with a Nursing Degree from the University Nairobi. She volunteered for a free medical camp organized by Chamberlain College of Nursing (United States of America) in association with the University of Nairobi in Baba Ndogo in April 2014.She volunteered in Mwingi medical camp in 2015. She has been trained on leadership and career stewardship. She has also served as the praise and worship leader in the Medical School Christian Union from 2015 to 2016.
As a post graduate diploma student, she is currently doing a project, that involves adapting and validating the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. This is a tool that will be used to measure how adolescents in Kilifi cope when faced with adverse life experiences. The information will be used to assess their risk in developing mental disorders such as depression. She is interested in working with young people as she believes its attractive and that it allows one to take vicarious satisfaction in their achievements
Patrick Mwangala
Patrick Katana
Amina is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Public Health at Pwani University, Kenya and a Research Fellow at the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Wellcome Trust Research Programme. She co-leads the Neuroscience research group at KEMRI-WTRP. She is also an honorary fellow at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, UK. She holds the prestigious MRC/DfiD African Research Leaders award. In 2016, she was awarded the Royal Society Pfizer Award. Her main interests are in the study of developmental delays and impairments among children exposed to various health problems such as HIV, malnutrition and malaria. A focus in her work is the development of culturally appropriate strategies for identifying, monitoring and rehabilitating at-risk children. Prof Abubakar has been instrumental in developing various culturally appropriate measures of child development that have been used in many African countries. In addition, she is also interested in examining the prevalence of and risk factors for neurodevelopmental disorders, specifically ASD, within the African context. Prof. Abubakar has given guest lectures, and workshops largely focusing on cross-cultural research methods in various countries, including Cameroon, Germany, Indonesia, Kenya, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, and Spain. She has (co)-authored more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. She has served on technical working groups, and forums for various international organizations including the World Health Organization, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (USA), Save the Children, and Autism Speaks. She is actively involved in capacity building for African Scientists; she has supervised Postgraduate Diploma, Masters and PhD students in Kenya. She has also supervised PhD students from South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.
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