#3 SPOTLIGHT FEATURE
Ponmile Ogunjemite, on starting up Pioneer Medical Initiative, and filling health gaps.
In this feature, we discuss what she’s building at Pioneer Medical Initiative as well as her trophy moments, not-so-good times and every other thing you don’t know yet.
Firstly, what is that one thing people don’t know about you?
Errrrm, what could that be? I think that should be that I’ve never taken pizza.
You studied Human Anatomy, but that’s no direct link as to why you’re building Pioneer Medical Initiative, is it? Why did you choose this, and how did it come about?
There is a link between the course of study and what I’m building, so I will say Yes. And it made sense as it was related to my course of study at the initial stage. As far as I can remember, I have always loved service for social good, and I found myself in it, even before I understood its meaning. The idea of Pioneer Medical Initiative, however, first struck me during my service year as the welfare coordinator of my student fellowship. As the first set of the faculty of Health and Health Technologies in my Alma Mater (FUTA) and the first health student to occupy this position (welfare coordinator) in the fellowship, I had simply wanted to do more than the routine health symposiums annually organised for the fellowship members, so I proposed a simple free medical checkup for the fellowship members using self-testing kits. The programme was very successful with help from volunteers which came from within and outside of the fellowship. Then, I found myself making commitments to help those I realised had some medical conditions. With time, demand led me to start Pioneer Medical services, a social enterprise providing subsidised checkups to subscribers. However, we failed during the first two months of operations. At that point, I realised we needed a more workable model and more importantly skill sets if we would be sustainable in filling the health gaps that daily unveil themselves, beyond the initial target and immediate community.
To cut the story short, in the following months, I spent more time grooming my leadership, administrative and collaborative skills by volunteering and gaining more exposure in the community health and social workspace beyond my course of study. My experiences during this period inspired and strengthened my choice of starting a non-profits organisation using the system of volunteers and that has sustained Pioneer Medical Initiative since its inception in November 2018.
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced at this?
There has really been a lot of challenges along the way; from failed projects to leading and training volunteers without any medical background, and most importantly, securing funding. Most times, it is quite challenging to get sponsorship for our activities, and having to maximise every resource available to drive the most impact. The impact we hope to achieve has made us decide to be open to all forms of intellectual and financial help we can get in building a sustainable model in this regards.
I can recall the failure of a particular project — The Beggars Health Outreach — caused a huge setback and period of inactivity between November 2018 and March 2019, and this was just about when we got started. It took much courage and resilience to be able to come back up, and again, we began operations in April 2019. I’m so grateful to God that I was undeterred.
Have you encountered any challenge that has been gender-based?
Well, I can’t explicitly say so. The health and social works spaces are appreciably more female-friendly when compared to fields like energy and aviation. Most of the gender-based challenges I have faced professionally are more cultural and social construct defined than industrialised.
You surely have lessons from all the challenges, and other things you’ve been through. Care to share some?
Sure, I have. In summary, my greatest lesson has been learning to listen more to the needs of people while creating value; be it for-profit or not-for-profit. Don’t start or build on mere assumptions and presumptions.
Here at Hertory Africa, we believe our resilience is one of the keys to get past challenges. For you, what are your strengths?
Resourcefulness, persistence and ability to commit to a cause. I would like to add people management too, even though I recognise the fact that I still have a long way to go with our curators and partners especially. I would also say objective analysis has been a strength and it has really helped me not to be too emotional when making important decisions and of course, you would agree with me that emotions could sometimes be a slippery slope
Achievements also inspire to do more, and you must have quite a number of them. Which do you want to share to inspire other young African women?
Well, I think I have shared one, which is about Pioneer Medical Initiative and it is probably one of the most important cause I have committed to. I wonder how it would have been if I didn’t find the courage and the will to start; probably most of the other things would not have emerged or even been notable.
Do you have other interests, asides what you do at Pioneer Medical Initiative?
I’m very much interested in tech. I’m not a techie, but my interest drove me into some circles of techies, and recently, I have been working on integrating the two fields — Healthtech. I also get to volunteer and participate in the tech space, often. For example, I like going for hackathons (in most cases, I get to assume the project manager role). Surprising, I volunteered during the African code week and even started learning UI/UX.
Do you think what you did to get here can be regarded as disruptive?
Personally, I don’t think it has been quite disruptive yet, especially when I consider the vision we are set for. We are doing good work, so I will just say watch out!
