"But I like to look at the prevalence of sickle-cell disease as an advantage – this is an opportunity where we can learn about malaria and genetic disorders. That’s how I try to look at it. Because it can be overwhelming, when you’re dealing with all the patients, with very few resources."

"The process of research is learning, unlearning and re-learning. We need to have the humility and willingness to learn from others and realise you need to re-think what you know."

"Don’t feel pressured if you are a young scientist or clinician in Africa. If you want to do a particular field of study – do it."

"From researchers’ point of view, the sad reality is that there is little incentive to go into the field and this has been the case for decades. When I completed my clinical training in the late 90s and expressed a desire to work on sickle cell disease, people said: “Why would you enter a field with no funding, no opportunities and no future?”"

"I was always told that building a scientific career was about securing grants and publishing papers, not improving health care or engaging with policy-makers. And when I questioned these assumptions, saying I wanted to impact health care directly, some people questioned whether I was truly committed to being a scientist."

"It’s tough, very challenging. One of the things which makes a big difference is having successful women mentors who understand things like balancing child and family life with work."

"I wake up around 5.30am and I have no idea which part of the world is falling apart and why it’s falling apart and the primary focus of my work is complex humanitarian crises in places like Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine-Russia and also prolonged crisis like that in the DRC and Yemen."

"I am very optimistic about the future of agriculture in Tanzania as the best means available to lift millions of smallholder farmers poverty."

"By using gene therapy, if sickle cell disease can be cured, it would then be possible to apply the knowledge to other conditions that are more complex. However, you can’t have a gene therapy for an African disease developed outside of Africa because it is inappropriate from an equity perspective"

"The ultimate thing for me, particularly as a physician scientist, is not just discovery, but also seeing the application of knowledge…into an improvement in health."

"We are not making science for science. We are making science for the benefit of humanity."

"There is almost minimal investment in research and development in not only Africa, but many third world countries. You need the industry to invest in science, as well as governments and philanthropy."

"“Mothers who have lost children now know their lives mattered.""

"The danger for an African scientist, because there are so few of us, is that you end up taking administrative positions, or leadership positions when you are not ready yet. You can end up being caught in a position where you can’t learn, you can’t mature, you can’t be a proper scientist – whatever that really is."

"Two or three of my colleagues left science because they didn’t get the right opportunities at the right times. These are brilliant people, now stuck. It’s a big loss. This is one of my regrets. I wish there was a way of identifying talent and getting those people more into pure science."

"My goal is to become involved in health policy and advocacy, to try to make decision makers understand why they should invest in sickle cell disease."

"I think it is very important when you are working on a disease to work closely with the people who are affected by it."

"Science is not that difficult, it’s just a myth, women are as good as men."

"Science is made to solve problems in the society, to exploit the resources we have so as to create technology and eventually wealth."

"When a woman can be empowered she can, they are very important people in our society, I call on women to enroll in large numbers in the colleges and Universities so that they can be the catalyst for development in our region."

"I knew that it was only education that was to liberate me and my family from the grips of poverty."

"The Lindi Region needs particular sensitization on education. The progress in all levels of education is not very encouraging when compared to other regions. That is why Open University of Tanzania intend to contribute whatever we have in rectifying this situation."