In early 2010, Dr. Amira Fathy El-Gazzar, a young public health researcher at Assiut University in Egypt, joined the first cohort of the Population Council’s Ford Foundation Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Fellowship. This program sought to strengthen the capacity of researchers to generate evidence in support of youth SRH in Egypt.
The fellowship offered Dr. EL-Gazzar a valuable opportunity to develop her research skills and utilize qualitative research methods for the first time. Under the mentorship of senior researchers in the Population Council’s Egypt office, Dr. EL-Gazzar and colleagues conducted an exploratory study on the SRH experiences of married adolescent girls in Egypt, publishing the findings in a Council compilation, “Breaking the Silence: Learning About Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health in Egypt.”
After her fellowship, Dr. EL-Gazzar collaborated with the Population Council’s Egypt office on a quantitative survey of over 700 married adolescent girls in rural Assiut and Sohag. The findings on spousal violence were published in the Journal of the Egyptian Public Health Association.
Today, Dr. EL-Gazzar is cultivating future generations of researchers as an Associate Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine at Assiut University and as the Head of Public Health and Community Medicine at Badr University in Cairo. She is grateful for the skills and competencies that she acquired and the many meaningful and long-lasting relationships she was able to build through her fellowship program with the Council.
Learn more about our Fellows.