We Are Scientific Fighters

Marie-Roseline Bélizaire is a doctor and epidemiologist with the World Health Organization (WHO). She was on the frontlines of Ebola and is now turning her expertise to help fight the spread of COVID-19 in the Central African Republic (CAR). She was motivated to study medicine after both her parents died from unexamined causes in their community in Haiti. Now, she goes door to door in CAR implementing COVID-19 strategies for the most vulnerable. She was able to test the resilience of her own strategies first hand when she contracted COVID-19 herself. “I go visit in the communities too. We work with community leaders. So sometimes they go also with us from door to door” Marie speaks about her upbringing in Haiti and how the lack of scientific and medical rigour motivated her to study medicine. She recounts her experiences on the frontlines of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, riding motorcycles into the bushes trying to contact trace that pandemic. Now, fighting COVID, she’s able to apply that expertise to the Central African Republic.