Meeting: Ending Polio in Nigeria

Rohey Njie - a public Helath specialist who assisted with the purge of polio in Nigeria will speak with us. She is also an honorary Rotarian in Gambia.

Rohey Njie is a public health professional from Gambia in western Africa. Raised by her grandmother in a rural community, Rohey saw first-hand the damaging effects of traditional medicine and was determined to step into the field of Public Health to help others. Through relentless study and discipline, she gained a scholarship for college and became the first person in her family to enter university. She became the only woman in her public health promotion program and excelled quickly.

From graduation in 2009 to June 2019, she rose through the ranks as a public health officer and health education and promotion officer and became a Senior Program Officer for the Ministry of Health in the Gambia. Rohey’s work focuses on advocacy, community engagement, and social and behavior change communication. While working with the health communication division, she was responsible for planning, coordination, implementation, and evaluation of health promotion programs, including immunizations, social mobilization, and disease prevention. She implemented several interventions and response programs working with and supporting and empowering individuals, families, and communities with health information to enable them take control of their own health and wellbeing.

In July 2019, she was recruited by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative assigned to Nigeria and continued her work with public health interventions to fight against polio. Additionally, Rohey has produced three of her own documentaries, her latest being “A Day in the Life of a Polio Survivor.”