Cheick Touré: Country Director in Mali

Experienced in providing training in programmatic and clinical reproductive health issues, Cheick Touré is IntraHealth’s country director in Mali. His career veered toward public health after an incident years ago:

“After my doctorate in medicine, I worked in clinical pediatrics to take care of children at the Gabriel Touré Hospital. One evening when I was a duty doctor, I recorded four deaths of children. These children had come too late to the hospital, and despite all our efforts, we were unable to save them.

“Three cases of severe malaria and one case of severe diarrhea with dehydration changed my life.”

At that point, Cheick began asking himself how he could be most useful to his country and then started working with the Ministry of Health’s Family Health Division. In 1999, IntraHealth recruited him to support the Ministry of Health to establish a national strategy for continuing education.

“That was successful, and I opened the IntraHealth Mali office in 2000,” he says. “Today, IntraHealth has become a key player in public health in Mali, providing technical assistance to the Ministry and USAID in human resources development and in reproductive, maternal, and child health.”

 

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