A heart for his hometown, a vision for rural healthcare

Usiju Ndai Medugu received a LAPTOP Scholarship in 2023 to complete a Diploma in Pharmacy with the Empower School of Health Education.

He speaks to us about helping his hometown rebuild its healthcare supply chains in the aftermath of terrorist insurgency.

Where do you work?

I’m the Pharmacy Specialist at Save the Children International in Nigeria, where I oversee all pharmaceutical supply chain activities. I conduct risk assessments, train field staff, and support the capacity of Ministry of Health staff. I work to ensure the continuous availability of lifesaving essential drugs across all our facilities.

The child mortality rate is high in my region and saving the child begins with the health and welfare of the mother, so we work to ensure safe childbirth and safe motherhood, and work to provide children with access to health and nutrition services.

What originally drew you to this work in supplies?

As a young pharmacy graduate, I volunteered to provide humanitarian services in my hometown in Borno State, in the north-eastern corner of Nigeria. Boko Haram insurgents had taken lives and destroyed our infrastructure, and most of the men, who were especially targeted, had fled, leaving women behind in camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), very often without access to health workers or health supplies.

This is where I grew up and I knew many of the women who needed healthcare. For example, my neighbor died in childbirth due to the lack of an ambulance service. In my area, women cannot afford transport to hospital, and cultural and religious barriers often mean husbands must grant permission for their wives to seek medical help, and some do refuse antenatal services for their wives. So, women need special care and support.

In the crisis, security posed a huge challenge, so we needed to bring services closer to patients, and make sure that when women eventually got to the hospital, lifesaving medications were in stock.

What unique challenges do you face in humanitarian healthcare?

Supply chain is a major issue because often, roads are inaccessible and there is a constant threat that supplies can be stolen by insurgents on the way to their destination. Often, also, facilities can be robbed. We have had to make supply deliveries more frequent — though it creates a bigger workload — so that we are not storing large quantities of vulnerable stock in one single place. We have also set up a central warehouse in the city, where security is higher. Also, because not all storage conditions in our region are optimal, we make sure that stock is moved continually, with shorter storage times at any one facility.

In addition, there are areas where trucks cannot access healthcare providers, and we resort to UN helicopters to deliver lifesaving medication. For all these, and other, reasons, I work in Borno State, rather than at our coordination office in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, so I can keep a better eye on local needs and developments.

How has the LAPTOP scholarship helped your work?

When I joined Save the Children as their only pharmacist, I felt quite overwhelmed by the huge task of managing their supply strategy for the entire country. My responsibilities included supporting procurement and overseeing storage, distribution, and direction for use of medicines. This was not something I had trained to do during my pharmacy degree! I needed to acquire advanced skills.

In my LAPTOP-supported studies, I learned to conduct risk assessments, good distribution practice site assessments, and quality assurance assessments of the medication we buy locally. As I have become more knowledgeable and experienced, doors have begun opening for me as an expert in the field, with increased responsibility and invitations to offer my expertise nationally and regionally.

What is your vision for supply chain professionals of tomorrow?

I helped create Pharmily — a network of more than 100 pharmacists in Nigeria who are committed to humanitarian causes. The network is dedicated to supporting new pharmacy graduates by sharing job opportunities, offering coaching and job-seeking advice, and brainstorming solutions for supply chain challenges members share with the group. Pharmily is a group of pacesetters who are committed to making a difference. It’s purely voluntary; people offer their time and expertise because they care.

Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?

Good policies exist but how applicable and realistic are they for rural areas? More than 60% of people in Nigeria live in rural areas. I want us to be sure that these people actually benefit from healthcare provisions. I want us to build resiliency into our supply chains so that we are not handicapped by any disaster — manmade or natural. I want us to build the lessons we learned during COVID-19 back into our supply chains. So, in five years’ time, I plan to have helped improve rural communities’ access to high quality health services and supplies.