Boniface Sebikali, Senior Clinical Training Advisor

“I get a great deal of satisfaction from working with people to build their capacity,” says Boniface Sebikali, IntraHealth’s senior clinical training advisor.

In 1987, IntraHealth [then Intrah] trained Sebikali and other providers in Rwanda to serve as training facilitators. “The training with IntraHealth changed my life—with the work I did, I was happy all the time, training, mentoring, and coaching people. It motivated me to continue working with the organization. That kind of satisfaction you can’t compare with the money or anything else.”

Sebikali began working with IntraHealth staff members every time they came to Rwanda; eventually, they asked him if he could provide technical assistance to other countries, starting with a consultancy in Cameroon. “That was the beginning of my journey with IntraHealth,” he explains.

Sebikali takes pride in having his trainees outgrow their need for what he can teach them. He says that it often happens after he and his team have developed materials and provided training of trainers for a program. He returns to check on his trainees, and they tell him, “’Boniface, we now have the capabilities to continue, we don’t need you.’ I know this means we did a good job with them,” he says. “They can take care of the rest of the program themselves.”

Sebikali admits one of the draws to IntraHealth is the opportunity to give back to the continent from where he originally came. “Being a clinical person here in the US is different from going back and seeing the extensive need and doing something for Africans,” he describes. “I am very happy in helping do that.”

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