The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7200 p779
1 June 2002

Society summary

Commonwealth Jubilee Travel Fellowship awarded to Kenyan pharmacist

A Kenyan pharmacist, Dr Mary Ojoo, has been awarded the £2,000 Commonwealth Jubilee Travel Fellowship offered by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Association to mark the Queen's golden jubilee.

The fellowship, announced earlier this year (PJ, 9 February, p187), was established to enable a young pharmacist registered in any Commonwealth country to visit any other Commonwealth country to improve his or her practice skills and subsequently assist with the development of pharmacy in his or her own country. The aim is to help the personal development of a pharmacist who is seen as a potential leader in his or her own country. Applications from developing countries were particularly encouraged.

Dr Ojoo, who is chief pharmacist in Gertrude's Garden Children's Hospital, Nairobi, is to use her fellowship to travel to Australia in July. She will visit several drug information services to learn how to set up and run a regional paediatric drug information service. She will also visit various other centres to learn about matters such as pharmaceutical care issues, drug and therapeutics committee, training and accreditation, national drug policies and regulatory affairs.

Commenting on the award, the CPA secretary, Professor Tony Moffat, said: "We recognised that Mary Ojoo was in a leadership position and in an executive capacity in Kenya. Her application was well presented and made a compelling case. In it she identified problems in her country, outlined what she would do with the travel, what she expected to learn and how she would learn. Her goals are realistic and she had a well constructed and clear plan of what she was going to do. The panel was certain that she could put what she learned into practice and that the profession of pharmacy in Kenya would benefit from her fellowship."

Dr Ojoo's application was chosen by an adjudicating panel of senior officers of the Society and the CPA and the Society's representative on the CPA council. The panel considered 57 applications from 21 Commonwealth countries. Professor Moffat added: "The standard was high and we felt that the applicants had some good ideas for their travel. We were only sorry that we did not have more fellowships to bestow."