Chidindu Mmadu-Okoli
Freelance Health Journalist, Nigeria
“To ask questions, to question the questions, and to answer these questions, using evidence-based science narratives that are relatable, shareable, applicable, and memorable to the African mind.”
Chidindu Mmadu-Okoli is a medical laboratory scientist, writer, and freelance health storyteller (journalist). She is passionate about humanising healthcare through stories, written for lay Nigerians to embrace healthy lifestyles, and for practitioner-relevance via patient-provider interactions.
Her work as a health storyteller cuts across breaking down complex medical terms and research work into the layman’s language, increasing audience knowledge and awareness of a health issue, increasing demand/support for health services, influencing behaviours and attitudes of patients and practitioners, and to increase efforts towards behavioural change through proper health education.
In 2019, Chidindu became a 2019 #PreventEpidemicsNaija Health Journalism Fellow with Health Watch Foundation, where her human-angle story on Lassa fever is aimed at highlighting the needs for strengthening public health research laboratories for monitoring, preventing, managing and controlling disease outbreaks.
Chidindu also loves to travel and to volunteer as a healthcare giver in rural or under-served communities in Nigeria. She is open to opportunities in health communications where rural dwellers are informed, and primary healthcare workers equipped with skills for solving health literacy issues.