Helen Amegbletor MA

Helen Amegbletor is the Communications Manager for the US President’s Malaria Initiative VectorLink Project in Ghana. She oversees the mobilization of communities, and all behavior change efforts while advocating an integrated approach to national vector control communication to help achieve the overall goal to reduce malaria burden in the Northern Region of Ghana. She holds a master’s degree in Communication Studies from the University of Ghana specializing in Health Communication and a bachelor’s degree in English Education from the University of Education, Winneba in Ghana. Communication is her passion and leveraging on experiences in the communication and the educational sectors, she assists communities to participate in vector control in order to maximize the impact of the interventions.

The positive impact made by women on the well-being of their families and communities is widely documented and is critical to the project. Roles in vector control are largely perceived to be male-oriented and Helen contributes to re-shaping the perception to motivate females to take up these roles. She provides guidance on improving the work environment to respond to reforms that push back the barriers contributing to the perception. Helping to groom females into supervisory roles and working to improve or sustain the number of women on the project has helped to challenge norms that work against women participation. In directly taking up a role on the project or indirectly influencing families to help control the malaria vector, women are given the opportunity to impact their communities and ultimately the project benefits from the strengths of its beneficiaries.