November-December 2023

Fellows Michael Banks, Malaika Ogukwe, Max Kaye, Haby Sondo, Macie’ Moore, Emily Langlois, and Idongesit Ikpang celebrate Kenyan holiday Mashujaa Day with a biking tour of Hell’s Gate National Park in Naivasha, Kenya.

A weekend day trip hiking Nzau Hills in Makueni County, KE.

Hey y’all! As a kid who’s lived his entire life in the same 40-mile radius of Georgia’s Bible Belt,  I’ve had quite a steep transition moving to the business and technology hub of East Africa, and it’s been a DREAM.

I’m currently serving as the first Princeton in Africa Fellow at Tech Care for All (TC4A), a digital health company that runs a medical e-learning platform in a mission to upskill healthcare professionals and improve patient outcomes across the continent. We’re a small-but-mighty team here in Nairobi with a couple of colleagues spread out across the continent (namely in Senegal, Nigeria, and Uganda in addition to Kenya).

It’s been about five months since I joined the TC4A team which makes it even crazier to think about how the time is flying and I’m nearly halfway through my fellowship. I came in thinking I was going to be writing articles for the website, and I’ve been able to do so much more with the support of my team and the beauty of working in a fast-growing organizations. 

Since joining, I’ve gotten to draft and contribute to 20+ funding proposals ranging from pitching TC4A to startup accelerator programs, designing global health programs that can be facilitated through our Medical Learning Hub (MLH) app for grant funding, and working with NGOs, pharma, and government entities to bolster partnerships that make public health trainings more accessible.

I’ve also gotten to contribute to web and social media strategy to improve TC4A’s digital presence, develop a marketing plan for the MLH app in Nigeria, and contribute to a go-to-market strategy for a client of ours leveraging AI-backed medical imaging tests in Uganda. 

Michael Banks and TC4A Africa Managing Director Benson Chuma represent TC4A at the Investing in Innovation Africa conference in Nairobi.

Among other accomplishments, I’m really fortunate to have spearheaded the writing for a grant that will allow us to set up an office in Rwanda in 2024! Some days are longer than others, but I’m thankful to have a team that is incredibly supportive of my growth and learning as I navigate this new industry.

Outside of the office, I’ve had the incredible luck of finding community really early on in my time here. I’ve spent my weekends exploring Kenya’s vibrant nature scenery, going to music events and art exhibitions, and spending time with some really good people. Between the PiAf Fellows based in Nairobi, my coworkers at TC4A, and the remarkably kind atmosphere of the city, this Georgia boy is feeling right at home.

In the new year, I’m looking forward to pouring into these friendships, growing in my business and public health acumen at work, and taking every opportunity the continent can provide.

Y’all stay safe now, and siku njema (have a good day)!

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Adam Hakizimana is 2023-24 General Fellow who is currently completing his fellowship at the African School of Economics (ASE), where he works alongside General Fellow Krystin Anderson. Adam and Krystin’s co-Fellow relationship is a key part of Princeton in Africa’s Nexus Program.

My name is Adam, I am the Project Coordinator and Communications Fellow with Princeton in Africa at the African School of Economics (ASE). 

Adam moderates a conversation between English Club members and the Dean of Masters’ studies.

I am proud to be part of the PiAf Nexus Program Fellowship and working in Benin at ASE, a school that develops world-class researchers and statisticians. As someone passionate about Education, seeing the students that the school has produced for the last ten years is inspiring. 

I am glad to have met and created a good relationship with the staff, students, and alumni, but most importantly, I built a relationship with my General co-Fellow, Krystin. 

My role as Project Coordinator and Communications has allowed me to explore my creativity and learn new skills. I am in charge of assisting the Admission Office in running recruitment projects and also leading the communication department. Other responsibilities are mentoring students on career development and assisting the predoctoral fellows in applying for PhD programs in some of the best universities in the world. There are other research-related projects that I also enjoy doing, like proofreading papers, which gives me a chance to learn more information about the world.

I encourage you to try your luck and apply for the PiAf Nexus; you never know.  It is particularly an honor to be the first-ever PiAf Nexus Fellow. If you would like to connect with me, feel free to search “Adam Hakizimana” on LinkedIn; I assure you, you will find me 😀

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Idongesit Ikpang is 2023-24 Nexus Fellow who is currently completing his fellowship at Emerging Leaders Foundation (ELF), where he works alongside general Fellow Malaika Ogukwe. Idongesit and Malaika’s co-Fellow relationship is a key part of Princeton in Africa’s Nexus Program.

A visit to Naivasha and a hike to the top of Mount Longonot with co-Fellow Malaika

Hello! My name is Idongesit, and I am very proud to call myself a 2023-2024 Princeton in Africa Fellow at Emerging Leaders Foundation-Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. It has been a fantastic experience living and working in Kenya. I have enjoyed balancing work and social life in a new country on the continent, and I am grateful to PiAf for this amazing experience. 

At ELF-Africa, I work alongside my General co-Fellow Malaika as a Programs Associate under one of the organization’s programs called Public Service Emerging Leaders Fellowship (PSELF). PSELF helps young people in Kenya become transformative figures within the public sector of Kenya. Being able to work with a supportive system that provides young people with skills and opportunities has been a humbling learning experience. I support the program during trainings, events and activities set up to help these young people. I am happy to see young people receiving desirable support in navigating life and helping them become the leaders they desire.

As much as I enjoy the work I do, I try to take time to see Kenya. One of my favourite experiences has been visiting Naivasha and hiking to the top of Mount Longonot with my co-fellow pictured beside me. Also, meeting up with current fellows and Alumni of the program to share experiences and create memories has been wonderful. I’m glad to be sharing this journey with an amazing group of fellows.

I am looking forward to the rest of the year and the coming of the new year as I help plan and execute a training session for young people in Kenya’s public sector towards the end of the month. I believe through my work with ELF-Africa, the lives of many young people like me will be touched, and my life will also change for the better. 

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Max Kaye is 2023-24 General Fellow who is currently completing his fellowship at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), where he works alongside Nexus Fellow Sinnah Lamin. Max and Sinnah’s co-Fellow relationship is a key part of Princeton in Africa’s Nexus Program.

Hello! My name is Max, and I am supporting the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) Kenya country program as a grants and reporting fellow. It is hard to believe I have already been in Nairobi for over four months! Through my role, I help coordinate reporting for the IRC’s entire grant portfolio which totals $25 million. Furthermore, I have had the unique opportunity of providing administrative support to the NGO Refugee Group (NRG), a consortium of refugee-facing organizations in Kenya that formed in 2020 to respond collectively to the similar challenges that the organizations in the sector. Recently, I had the chance to support the group by compiling a report for donors that detailed the dire situation in Dadaab, a county in northeastern Kenya, following El-Nino-associated flooding. Already, the report has led to further discussions between the NRG and the donors concerning specific support that they can provide to respond to the challenges refugees and host communities in Dadaab have encountered. 

A classroom in the host community participating in the fun tradition of throwing their school materials to mark the school year’s end.

Just last week, I had my first opportunity to travel to the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Turkana County. There, I attended a donor visit for a sport for protection grant the IRC is implementing alongside other partners and also really enjoyed meeting with my colleagues based in the field whom I normally only interact with in a virtual capacity. The photo on the right shows a classroom from one of the schools in the host community involved in the protection project; when the school year ends, the students celebrate by throwing (and seemingly ripping up) their school materials! While there were definitely moments of discomfort throughout the visit, it was a great learning experience and I made it a point to engage with the other Fellows in my cohort, especially Sinnah, my Nexus co-Fellow, to chat about my thoughts and experiences while in Kakuma.

While our roles do not tend to have much overlap on the day-to-day basis, Sinnah and I still try to make time to work together while in the office, and I have been grateful for the conversations we have had about the fellowship and our future plans. I am likely going to snap my fingers and I will only have 4 months left in my fellowship, but I am confident that I will have grown tremendously by then, which is what I see as one of the central aims of this program.

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