Q. What is the change you'd most like to see in your community?

A. I would want young people to be more empowered about their surroundings—to not only understand what they are exposed to, but also to take charge of the situation. They have this great ability to be both a role model and a change maker in our fight towards beating NCDs.

Q. What are the main NCD-related challenges facing your community?

A. Coming from a low- and middle- income country, there are three challenges that I see in my community pertaining to NCDs: low health literacy, poor access to quality health services, and normalisation of NCDs.

Q. Why are NCDs an important issue for you?

A. NCDs don't discriminate! They are everywhere—in my family, in your family and around us. They affect everyone and they will affect everyone in some way or the other. And there is something that everyone can do about it from an individual, family, community, environmental, and legislative perspective.

Q. How are you working to #beatNCDs?

A. I work both as a Public Health Researcher and a Global Health Advocate to contribute to generating evidence as well as to translate and mobilize that evidence to bring about change at the local, national and global level.

Q. Who is your role model?

A. My role model is my mentor — Rachel Nugent, par excellence health economist and an amazing human being who has taught me so much in my public health (and life) journey. She is one of the main reasons that I love to do what I do!

(Click here to learn more about Rachel Nugent and her work.)

Q. Who or what has inspired you lately?

A. I think as a passionate member of the global NCD community, every effort that we take collectively inspires me to push harder every single day in our fight against NCDs.