Aproko Doctor Global has partnered with Sunu Reew Medical Mission to strengthen healthcare access and community empowerment in The Gambia, with both organisations envisioning the collaboration as the first step toward a broader healthcare movement across Africa.
Speaking exclusively to The Nollywood Reporter on the collaboration, Nigerian medical doctor and health educator Dr. Chinonso Egemba, popularly known as Aproko Doctor, said the partnership was born out of a shared vision to improve healthcare while empowering people to take greater ownership of their health.
“We’re both crazy about what we believe in,” Egemba said, describing the scale of Sunu Reew’s work in The Gambia and the commitment of its founder, Victoria Lissong Richards-Ohwotu, who he said has spearheaded the movement for years.
For Egemba, that shared conviction is important because the partnership is not simply about providing medical interventions. It is also about creating a system in which people understand their health, participate in healthcare decisions and become advocates for themselves and their communities.
That approach, he explained, is what he describes as “health sovereignty.”
“Health sovereignty starts with people taking ownership of their health,” he said. “It starts with empowering people to understand their health and advocate for themselves.”
The focus on empowerment adds another dimension to Sunu Reew’s existing healthcare work. The organisation, whose name loosely translates to “taking care of our land/people” in Wolof, was founded by Richards-Ohwotu and is committed to improving healthcare delivery through innovative approaches while addressing critical health challenges in The Gambia.
The partnership with Aproko Doctor Global will bring health communication, storytelling, social and behavioural change and community empowerment into that work. Egemba said his organisation also brings networks that include healthcare workers, an important consideration given the shortage of health professionals across the continent.
“Africa has a shortage and a debt of health workers,” he said, stressing the need not only to reach patients but also to empower the people working within healthcare systems.
The immediate focus is The Gambia, which Egemba described as the first phase of an initiative that could trigger a wider chain of interventions.
“The Gambia is the first step,” he said. “It could spin off a chain of events.”
That first step is expected to focus on measurable improvements in health outcomes and quality of life, with attention to non-communicable diseases as well as the health needs of men, women and children under five.
Egemba said the long-term goal is to see an empowered Gambia, with stronger health planning and budgeting, greater involvement from policymakers, improved under-five health outcomes and healthcare workers who are better equipped to communicate with patients.
“We want to see an empowered Gambia,” he said, outlining a vision that goes beyond individual medical outreaches to building stronger systems and more informed communities.
The partnership also comes as Sunu Reew continues to broaden the ways it approaches healthcare. In 2025, the organisation collaborated with the Silicon Valley African Film Festival to combine medical outreach with storytelling, film and art, reflecting Richards-Ohwotu’s interest in approaches to healing that extend beyond conventional medical interventions.
The new collaboration similarly places communication at the centre of healthcare. For Egemba, the ability to communicate medical information in ways people understand is essential to changing behaviour and ultimately improving health outcomes.
That philosophy has also shaped his work as Aproko Doctor, where he has built a public health platform around making medical information accessible to everyday audiences.
Now, through Aproko Doctor Global, he hopes to take that communication-driven approach into a broader system of community empowerment.
“We’re revitalising healthcare in Africa,” he said.
The ambition extends beyond The Gambia, although the country remains the starting point for the organisations' immediate plans. Egemba said the goal is to establish measurable progress there and develop an approach that can be adapted as the initiative expands to other African communities.
The partnership also coincides with Sunu Reew’s appointment of Nollywood actor Tony Mezie as its Nigerian ambassador. Mezie, who was unveiled on Tuesday in Lagos, is expected to support the organisation’s healthcare advocacy and outreach efforts while using his public platform to raise awareness around healthcare gaps.
For Egemba, the involvement of public figures and communicators is consistent with the broader philosophy behind the collaboration. Healthcare advocacy, he believes, cannot exist separately from the people it is intended to serve.
With The Gambia serving as the first phase, the organisations are now looking toward a model that can produce measurable change, empower communities and potentially be replicated elsewhere on the continent.
For Egemba, the ultimate measure of the partnership will not simply be the number of people reached by an outreach, but whether those communities are better equipped to understand, protect and advocate for their own health.
