Miata Jambawai-Kaisamba is AHF Sierra Leone’s Country Program Director. Her story is next in our “I Am AHF” series featuring remarkable staff, clients, and partners who are doing what’s right to save lives everyday.
Interviewed by Diana Shpak, Knowledge Management Focal Point, AHF Europe.
In April 2012, Miata Jambawai-Kaisamba became the Country Program Manager of AHF’s program in Sierra Leone. She built the program from the beginning, with zero clients, one site, and only four staff members. Under her leadership, it has grown into a national program supporting around 48,000 clients across 48 sites, with close to 100 staff.
Today, AHF Sierra Leone is the largest NGO provider of HIV/AIDS services in the country, working with government and partners across four of the country’s five regions and serving major hospitals and treatment sites.
Her leadership has been shaped by knowledge, compassion, strong family values, and a lifelong commitment to public health and service at AHF.
Miata’s story begins far from Sierra Leone, in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, where she was born while her parents were studying abroad. After their studies, the family returned home to Sierra Leone, where Miata grew up as the eldest of three children. She remembers her childhood as beautiful, warm, and full of love. Her family was not rich, but they had everything that truly mattered. At home, four values shaped her early life: belief in God, love, honesty, and respect.
Because of her father’s work, Miata moved across different regions of Sierra Leone, receiving her education in Catholic schools in the north and east of the country. She later studied at the University of Sierra Leone, earning a degree in Health Sciences and a postgraduate diploma in Community Medicine and Health.
After completing her postgraduate studies, Miata began her career with the Ministry of Health as an Assistant Nutritionist, marking her first step into public service. Miata later spent almost 10 years with ActionAid International, growing from Program Support Officer to Head of Programs. She then earned a master’s degree in public health at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom before eventually joining AHF.
Miata’s path into public health was deeply personal, shaped by her early dream of studying medicine and the painful loss of her younger sister. That experience became a turning point, leading her toward public health to reach families, communities, and systems, prevent suffering, and make a wider difference.
One chapter Miata cannot leave out of her life story is Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war, which began when she was still at university and shaped her resilience, courage, and understanding of service under pressure. While many people fled, Miata chose to stay and support displaced families and communities in crisis, believing that Sierra Leone could be rebuilt by those who refused to give up.
Miata explains that the growth of AHF Sierra Leone was made possible through strong partnerships, supportive leadership, committed staff, and trust with the government and communities.
“Our relationship with government is very, very good. We do have challenges, but we have always been able to overcome them in amicable ways,” she says.
Her own journey from nutrition to public health changed the way she saw service, while AHF’s support, especially during the Ebola outbreak in 2014, gave the team the courage to keep going and build a program that continues to change lives.
For Miata, the biggest barriers to HIV services in Sierra Leone remain stigma and discrimination, whether in communities, health facilities, or within people themselves. AHF Sierra Leone continues to reach difficult and remote areas, reduce stigma through training and legal support, and bring quality care closer to those who need it most.
“We go to communities that other NGOs don’t want to venture into,” she says.
Miata knows that there are still more people to reach, especially through stronger testing initiatives and deeper outreach in rural communities.
To expand services, Miata trusts that Sierra Leone needs both human and financial resources. For AHF, growth means more than opening additional sites; it also means maintaining quality care.
“AHF’s work is rooted in quality; it is not simply about opening a site.”
Behind her professional strength, Miata also finds support in her family. She is the mother of two children: Grace, 18, who is studying medicine in China, and Samuel, 14, who is still in high school. “When I get frustrated, my family is there to motivate me and challenge me.”
Looking back, she hopes people will remember the transformation and how AHF helped her grow in confidence and leadership.
“If there is any legacy I am leaving, it is how I helped build a program from nothing to where we are today.”
In June 2023, Miata was promoted to Country Program Director.
She recognizes that even the hardest chapters held purpose. The war tested her, but it also prepared her for leadership, public health, and the lifelong work of rebuilding lives. Her story is not just one of survival; it is one of choosing to stay, to serve, and to know that even in the darkest moments, a country can be rebuilt by those who refuse to give up. Above all, she is grateful for life, family, and her work with AHF, which gives her purpose by helping people receive care, regain dignity, and return to life.
