UDSM lecturer for U.S. studies

The American people have awarded a Fulbright scholarship to a University of Dar es Salaam lecturer Ms. Winifrida Kidima from the University of Dar es salaam to pursue Masters in Tropical Medicine, leading to doctoral studies at the University of Hawaii, in the United States.

According to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Ms. Kidima has been selected for the two-year scholarship by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB) for the Fulbright award, receiving one of four fellowships awarded this year for graduate studies. A total of 19 candidates have been awarded a Fulbright this year in various programs.

With her Fulbright award, Ms. Kidima joins the ranks of dozens of distinguished scholars who have participated in the program over the past several decades. Tanzanian Fulbright alumni have become judges, ambassadors, cabinet ministers, Chief Executive Officers, university presidents, journalists, artists, professors and teachers following their graduate study in America.

Worldwide, Fulbright alumni have been awarded 39 Nobel Prizes. Since its inception more than 60 years ago, approximately 300,000 Fulbrighters have participated in the program worldwide.

Kidima, a lecturer and researcher with the Department of Zoology and Wildlife Conservation at the University of Dar es Salaam, arrived in the U.S. August 19. Her several-year program will focus on malaria immunity and vaccine development from a Tanzanian perspective, an important part of ongoing efforts to eradicate malaria in Tanzania and surrounding countries.

Her program will help her to develop an international understanding by establishing open communication and long-term cooperative relationships. In that way, she will enrich the educational, political, economic, social and cultural lives of Americans and other nationals she meets in the United States, as well as upon her return home.

Kidima remarked that the program in Tropical Medicine will be “vital” to her research and career development. This opportunity will have a huge impact for her institution and for the communities in Africa where malaria and other tropical diseases affect a big segment of population and where very few people with such expertise are available. Kadima’s program comes at a time when the United States and other donors are scaling up the fight against malaria worldwide.

The Fulbright exchange program expects Ms. Kidima be active in her community throughout her studies, and in so doing demonstrate qualities of service, excellence and leadership that have been the hallmarks of the program for more than 60 years. As a representative of Tanzania, Ms. Kidima is also expected to fulfill the principal purpose of Tanzania’s Fulbright program, which is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States of America and the people of Tanzania.

The Fulbright exchange programme awarded to Kidima comes from the American people and is part of overall U.S. Government direct and multilateral assistance to Tanzania of more than 750 billion Tanzanian shillings this fiscal year.