When Dr. Aishatu Abubakar Sadiq walked into a women and children’s hospital in Kaduna after medical school, she found herself in one of the busiest delivery wards in the state — right in the middle of a densely populated, low-income area. Women were arriving who could not pay for their drugs. Who did not understand what was wrong with their own bodies until someone translated for them.
She was doing damage control every single day. Plugging a bucket that was leaking everywhere.
I decided I needed to go further back — before the hospital, before the crisis. That is what took me into public health.
Today, as Permanent Secretary of Health for Kaduna State, she has spent years doing work that rarely makes headlines but changes lives at scale. Maternal mortality in Kaduna has dropped below 1,000 deaths per 100,000 live births. Child wasting and stunting are below 30%. Traditional rulers are now going out with healthcare workers into communities.
And she still watches women healthcare workers come alive over three days of training — the knowledge and expertise that was already inside them, waiting to come out.
Her proudest work right now is mentorship. Watching adolescent girls she knew as teenagers become better mothers and better caregivers for the women around them. An investment in one person’s time and knowledge that changes an entire life — professional and personal.
That is what the upstream work looks like. And it is exactly why every contribution matters.
Dr. Aishatu Abubakar Sadiq is a Consultant Medical Epidemiologist, Reproductive Health Specialist, and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Kaduna State, Nigeria. She is a WiPHLA Woman of the Month.
Read her full profile on LinkedIn →
This article is part of WiPHLA’s Woman of the Month series, spotlighting African women leading public health across the continent. If you would like to support their work, visit our donate page.