Insights from 120 Under 40 Leaders: Q&As with the Winners

They might be young, but they have already made great waves in the field of family planning around the globe.

The winners of the 120 Under 40 program, organized by the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and sponsored by Bayer, were chosen for their “positive disruptions” and leadership in family planning. They have all made significant contributions to family planning in several categories including advocacy, programming/program implementation, research, service delivery, and policy, and they receive $1,000 from the Gates Institute to advance their work further. A new group of 40 winners will be announced on September 12, 2017.

GHN singled several of the 2016 winners for this exclusive Q&A series, highlighting their achievements, which span several continents.

September 7, 2017
Engaging Youth, Meaningfully: Q&A with Burcu Bozkurt

Sharing insights from her work with young family planning advocates around the world, Burcu Bozkurt comments, "If our health care systems are failing youth on family planning, it’s probably because youth have been left out of the conversation for far too long."

August 31, 2017
Lifting Up Youth: Q&A with Jean Christophe Rusatira

As a medical student in Rwanda, Rusatira started to think about ways to help youth find better opportunities ... leading him to launch youth-led initiatives and create an NGO dedicated to health literacy.

August 23, 2017
Shattering Taboos in Guyana: A Q&A with Patricee Douglas

The only winner from the Caribbean region, Douglas is dedicated to empowering teenage mothers and looking for fun, creative, and taboo-shattering approaches to her advocacy and educational work in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Guyana.

August 17, 2017
Q&A with Marvin Masalunga: Doctor to the Barrio

Masalunga graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine—one of the country’s top programs—yet he chose to work in rural areas, driven by a desire to make population-level change by advocating for family planning.

August 10, 2017
Investing in Girls: Q&A with Margaret Bolaji

Bolaji, a fierce advocate for girls’ education, mentors adolescents from rural communities, boosting their literacy, sexual and reproductive health and life skills  to prevent early pregnancy and help keep them in school.