Spotlighting Halima Nuhu Sanda

Dr. Halima

Jemima Bolokor

According to history, the Ijoras are known to be the Aworis, who are one of the children of Olofin, one of the children of Oduduwa. Alaraohugin is the progenitor of the Ijoras. They followed their father from Ile-Ife to finally settle where is now known as Ijora Kingdom, which includes Igamu area.

Dr. Halimah Nuhu Sanda, founder and CEO of Romeo and Zainab Boudib Foundation (ROMZAIB), a non-governmental organization established in 2010, has a passion that drives her – empowering and educating the girl-child to enable them play a role in shaping their own destinies, as well as providing healthcare services and sustainable water supply in remote and hard to reach communities in Kano State.

Her NGO, ROMZAIB, is the vehicle through which she pursues this vision. Her approach to achieving these ambitious goals is through collaboration with traditional leaders, government, educational institutions, civil society organizations, caregivers and the women and girls themselves using multiple platforms. Since 2010, ROMZAIB had been supporting Tofa community to improve quality of and access to healthcare delivery and services through capacity building for frontline health care providers on MNCH and provision of essential equipment and drugs.

As a Public Health Expert, she has substantial experience in supporting government, international organizations and communities, through critical periods of repositioning, turn-around and growth. She has worked with international institutions to promote and provide years of cumulative public health activities and team leadership in Maternal, New Born and Child Health, Malaria and HIV/AIDS.
Sanda received her Medical degree from Lugansk Medical University, Ukraine in 2010 and obtained her Master in Public Health from University of Debrecen, Hungary in 2012 graduating with Honors as an Expert in Public Health. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health in United Kingdom.

During her medical school days, she served as vice president of Nigerian student union for three terms from 2004 – 2007, president Nigerian student volunteer association of Lugansk medical university for three years as well as serves as a life member of the board of directors of Lugansk medical university volunteer association.

Due to her contribution towards improving the lives of orphans in the region, Sanda received the prestigious honorary membership of the African National Society of the Assembly of the People of Lugansk Region. In 2012, she was awarded a maternal health ambassadorship by International Museum of Women, a museum founded in 1985 with headquarters in San Francisco that covers women issues worldwide which in March 2014 became a part of Global Fund for Women, one of the world’s leading foundation for gender equality and standing up for human rights initiatives.

After her graduation in 2010 she returned to Nigeria where she briefly worked with FHI360 as a volunteer and coordinated the data collection and collation of a research on determining the risk of Cardio vascular diseases among HIV positive clients in Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital which was presented to international audience, and later as their Clinical Service Officer where she assisted in strengthening a system of monitoring and evaluation frameworks.

Dr. Sanda also worked as National consultant for Partnership for reviving routine immunization in Northern Nigeria- Maternal Newborn and Child Health (PRRINN MNCH), a UKAid DFID funded project in Zamfara State Nigeria where she oversaw the scaling up of community based service delivery from five piloted sites to fifty sites. Over the years, she has collaborated with other colleagues on researches, and has presented papers to both local and international audience. Sanda currently works with Clinton Health Access Initiative in Kano on their Maternal and Newborn Health programme, where she oversees the mentoring arm of the programme in Kano State. During her spare time, she volunteers at Muhammad Abdullahi Wase Specialist hospital.

An amateur poet and farmer, ardent horse rider, and a borderline obsessed Arsenal fan, when she’s not working, and saving the lives of mothers and their babies, she’s spending time with family and her turtles.