Alhadi K. Osman

What ignited your pursuit for gender equality?

Two main reasons. Firstly, the mere fact that OGBYN care in Sudan and Africa is not optimum, and, as a result, a lot of girls lose their lives due to simple and preventable causes. This is truly unacceptable and has to change. Secondly, it is that we need the contribution of everyone in order to develop. In general, no one should be left behind.

Please share your biggest wins as an advocate for gender equality.

The Medical Students’ Association in my university was absent for sometime after 2012. In 2014, I revived it when I took the vice presidency. I envisioned its most outstanding benefits for both students and the community. I always wanted to work on health issues in my community, but the capacity was not in our favor, as academia is uncharted territory in Sudan. In that period, I recruited and trained medical students then organized our work under several categories centering on human rights, public health, medical education, and SRHR. There were 3,000 participants trained over 500 hours. After all, we represented an institute that was much larger than we are. This was the kick-off for a great performance in the subsequent years. I was alone one day, but today around one third (400-500 students) of medical students are actively involved in our students' association activities. Our projects during 2018 have directly benefited over 10,000 people in Sudan.

Outside of your gender equality advocacy work, what do you enjoy doing?

I'm a footballer, a language enthusiast, a debater, an ascending violinist, and a hardcore videogamer.