Halidou Beidou Rachidatou rose early on a steamy May morning in Niamey, Niger’s capital, to prepare for the journey ahead. It was already 104 degrees, but the heat and fasting for Ramadan did not slow down this determined champion for public health.
Equipped with a GPS tracker and her motorcycle, Rachidatou joined teams of data collectors on an important assignment to map Niger’s unmapped roads on behalf of the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).
They were working to determine how long it takes for health facilities to receive shipments of malaria medicine and other commodities. The data collectors spent three weeks traveling to and from more than 300 health facilities, recording the health facilities’ locations and average travel time to arrive there. They also collected information on 130 supply chain performance areas, such as storage conditions, capacity, and connectivity including electricity and internet.
Read more about Rachidatou and her fellow data collectors' journey in our Medium article.
