Akho: Recent Episodes
Akho
Health and Humanity: Making Intelligent and Informed Decisions
We had an insightful conversation with our guest Loretta Oduware Ogboro-Okor
Guest Profile: Loretta Oduware Ogboro-Okor, is a United Kingdom trained Obstetrician and Gynaecologist. She has been able to blend her work in the science field of medical practise with being an author, a passionate motivational speaker, women and youth health advocate and educationist as well as a social entrepreneur and an ardent blogger. She set up the Loretta Reveals “borderless motivational space” http://lorettareveals.org in 2015. She also co-founded the Ashanti Graham Health & Education Initiative Foundation (AGHEIF) in 2010 - a charity with the vision "21st Century Health Care for Africa." The charity has made significant progress in enabling capacity development in Nigeria through healthcare trainings for medical professionals and providing important equipment and hardware for medical institutions.
Loretta earned her MBBS degree from the prestigious University of Benin in Nigeria. She bagged further postgraduate degrees: an MSc in Public Health Research and another in Clinical Education from the Universities of Edinburgh and Sheffield Hallam both in the United Kingdom. Loretta is currently doing a PhD in Law and Criminology at Sheffield Hallam University. She is a member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologist here in the United Kingdom and has worked in the NHS now, for over 10 years. Furthermore, she has formal peer review exposure with the British Medical Journal and Cytopathology WILEY-on-line and is also and an Obstetric Skills and Drills Provider for PRactical Obstetric Multi-Professional Training (PROMPT) with the Doncaster and Bassettlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. A position where she not just teaches, but also reviews, updates and develops multi-professional Obstetric simulation training modules for staff to ensure reduction in preventable harm for women and their babies with the overall goals of reducing poor maternal outcomes.
Apart from being a woman in the field of science and healthcare provision, her life journey reflects roles in leadership, people motivation, academics, research and advocacy. Loretta is passionate about “Cultural Integration” in African communities as a means to tackling women’s Reproductive and Mental Health issues as well as Trafficking. She is dedicated to motivating people; principally those from ethnic minority backgrounds to achieving a life of purpose and significance because she understands that having limited use of the common language (in this case English) as well as peculiar cultural sensibilities can be a huge challenge to societal integration for migrant populations- especially women.
She has often been awarded accolades for her voluntary works and community commitments.
She is the current President of the University of Benin Alumni Association, United Kingdom Branch.