Dr Agatha Bula was awarded a PhD in Midwifery from City, University of London, and graduated in 2016.
Dr Agatha Kapatuka Bula is a Malawian Registered Nurse/Midwife who has just been awarded a PhD in Midwifery from City University of London. She joined City in 2010 after being awarded a Studentship. She also received financial support from Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research programme and Dorah Opoku scholarship to complete her PhD Programme. Dora was the head of the midwifery department at City for many years and her family created this scholarship in memory of her contribution to midwifery and women’s health. Agatha’s thesis investigated how community-based interventions using peer counsellors would help to promote exclusive breastfeeding among HIV positive women in rural Malawi and reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Her plan is to use the experience and expertise gained from City University London to help Malawi in reducing HIV transmission among the general population.
After completing her studies at City University, she returned back to her home country Malawi where she was offered a job as a Strategic Information Advisor for LINKAGES programme with her previous employer UNC Project in collaboration with FHI 360.
Her current work involves working with key populations in Malawi in order to provide the National estimation of female sex workers and men who have sex with men in Malawi. Her responsibilities as a Co-Principal Investigator include: conducting literature review and mapping exercise for key populations (sex workers and men who have sex with men) in Malawi to provide evidence for programme purposes, develop and submit research protocol for ethics review and conduct consultative meetings with key stakeholders.
My last hope is to be a role model and become a useful resource person in Malawi as a professional in Nursing and midwifery. Many nurses in Malawi do not have opportunities to go further with their studies because of lack of funding. I hope to be able to help make a difference in nursing career by motivating my fellow nurses to pursue further studies so that their dream may come true as other nurses/midwives in the world.
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