Momodou Kabir Manneh

Av Margareta Danelius | maj 24, 2018 | | No Comments

My name is Momoodou Kabir Manneh. I am 24 years old and a medical student, I’ve learnt to develop the art of trusting my instincts and acting upon them appropriately because not in everyday life will present to you in a clear cut picture. I’ve always been a hard working selfless person who cares more for his family and friends than I do for myself. I have grown to love medicine because it makes my heart so warm anytime I help in the treatment of a patient and they are discharged smiling, well and healthy

I am proud and lucky. AforA has done something for me that my family could not do. You have made the hard task of achieving my dreams easier and more realistic. You have given us light at the end of a very long, dark tunnel. With education, the prospects of my country now seem brighter. Your investment in me, my family and country will bring forth profits that you have never imagined. Thank you so much AforA!

Fall semester 2016:

This semester, I started Part II of Laboratory medicine and Pharmacology II. Lab Medicine II includes the following courses: Anatomical Pathology II, Chemical Pathology II, Medical Microbiology (Bacteriology, Virology, Parasitology and Mycology) II and Hematology II. Over all the semester started well and we started all our courses on time except Chemical Pathology because the lecturer was ill and he had to undergo a surgery. But he is back now and we are moving fast to regain the lost time. Presently we are almost done with the entire syllabus and are preparing to write our end of semester examination mid this month. Over the course of the semester, we have had a series of tests, assessment and practicals and I have passed all of them. We have also had some research assignments which involved paying visits to various research clinics like: A) The MRC-Fajara labs and clinic to learn about various topics, laboratory ethics and diseases related to our study. B) The Faji Kunda Health Center to investigate the burden of HPV and cervical cancer. C) The National Laboratory to collect data and statistics related to vaccination and the efforts done to tackle vaccine preventable diseases in the country and globally. At the end of every visit we would conduct a tutorial in class. There weren’t any internship during this period. The main challenge I have faced during this time is travelling and getting to school early to start lectures on time. For those of us not living on campus or near, to get a vehicle early in the morning to get to school in the capital, Banjul everyday is very difficult and expensive. I scramble for a seat in the buses on a daily bases both in the morning going to school and evening when going home. Sometimes I reached school a little bit untidy because of the push and pull. I spend a lot of energy and time travelling to and fro school and as result I am worn out when I get home. This makes reading or studying for a test extra difficult. We also had mild issues like registering our courses which was resolved thankfully with your help. Furthermore, reading can be very difficult when power goes off. Power supply is very much unstable here especially recently and we do not have text books to

read from. We depend on our laptops to read from PowerPoints and eBooks. My laptop is old and has a bad battery so I cannot read when power goes off. I depend on some notes that I make and on printed word documents during this time to read which is not enough. Generally, however, I have had a good beginning of the semester and AforA contributed massively. Thank you!

Spring semester 2017

In the month of March I sat to the Part 2 Professional Examination of the medical school in which I had a credit in both Laboratory Medicine and Pharmacology

Fall semester 2017

March this year, I sat to the part II medical school professional examination on Laboratory Medicine and Pharmacology which I passed with and credit in both courses. Secondly, in May this year, my cohort had our community medicine Community Diagnosis postings in the village of Gunjur. The aim of the posting was to visit people in the own homes and community to get to see and have a feeling of how they live and manage themselves and their surroundings to prevent against infection and diseases. I had the opportunity to learn thier cultures and lifestyle and also interact with the residents of Gunjur and its surrounding villages. In July, we began our Internal Medicine I postings. During this time I learnt many disease conditions and their managements. In September, we began our Obstetrics and Gynecology Junior postings rotations. There I learnt to value women even more considering how much trauma and pain they go through to bring lives in to this world. I was further fortunate to conduct one delivery of a life male neonatal weighing 2.9kg. We are currently doing our end of placement examination on obstetrics and gynecology.

Spring semester 2018

We successfully underwent surgery 1 postings for 8 weeks where we had the opportunity to see real life surgeries mostly open lapartomy, pedal amputations and internal fixations of fractures. There onto we moved into paediatrics 1 posting for a further 8 weeks and learnt about childhood medicine, medical conditions and management. And we also learnt about the major diseases affecting this age group. Now we are into the 5 weeks of surgery 2 postings and so far so good. We are going to theatre attending rounds and I am happy to say I’ve done two laceration suture closures one of the face the other on the thigh at the emergency department and they were beautiful stitches

So far so good. We’ve havery completed surgery 1 and pediatrics 1 postingso and we are currently we are on surgery 2 postings

Fall semester 2018

So far everything is going great for me. I have written to almost five end of rotation examinations and I came out with very good results in all of them. I shall be writing one more by the end of next week. I looking forward to having a good performance too

Spring semester 2019

It has been wonderful for I had a very good pass in the part 3 professional examination which was a very difficult exam to pass.

Challenges 2019 so far : It is as usual. No enough financial capacity to fund other school projects like text books, personal medical student equipment for use in practical like BP machine, stethoscope, thermometer, patella hammer, tuning fork etc. Transportation costs is as well a major problem. We are very grateful to the AforA for the help they are rendering us because it goes a long way to ease some of our financial needs

Spring semester 2020

Things have been smooth all the way to mid March. Before that, I have finished general surgery 4 rotation and about to defend my thesis and take on internal medicine 4 rotation before finally moving on to sit to final examination in medical student in order to graduate. Because of COVID19 and it’s related problems I am unable to attend school for close to two months.

December 2020

Medical graduation