Tsungai Kupeta

Tsungai Kupeta is a Zimbabwean pursuing a PhD in Economics at the University of Cape Town. Her research focuses on climate justice and protection through sustainable transitions in South Africa. The aim of the study is to understand the labor market implications associated with the transition. She grew up in rural areas in Zimbabwe with her single mother (a domestic worker), whom she had to take care of during her high school studies when her mother  was critically ill. Despite all the financial challenges and hardships she faced growing up, she managed to break the school record and become the best-ever student at her Ordinary Level.

Tsungai is committed to empowering women and girls through education so that the gender gap can be closed in the labor market to fight today’s injustices and develop a society for the benefit of generations to come. In line with this, she has mentored several women and young girls to rewrite their GSCE exams in Zimbabwe. She has also organized several outreaches as a peer educator and mentor to high school students in underserved areas in rural Zimbabwe.

Her future goal is to establish a well-coordinated organisation that helps vulnerable women and girls in Zimbabwe, particularly in rural areas, by empowering and mentoring women to become economically independent and socially confident for better livelihoods and sustainable income.

Patience Masi

Patience Masi, from Malawi, is pursuing a PhD in sociology at the University of Cape Town.  Her research focuses on the drivers and constraints of the expansion of social protection, with Malawi as a case study.  Prior to this, for ten years, she worked in the field of social protection on the largest cash transfer programme in Malawi, the Malawi Social Cash Transfer Programme, where she contributed to the establishment of the programme from a pilot to nationwide coverage targeting 1.2 million people in a population of close to 20 million.  She has also worked as an Economist for the Malawian Government, providing advice to the Finance Minister on how to raise domestic revenue. 

Patience has a passion for development work and has project management experience in various sectors such as nutrition, decentralization, private sector development and social protection.   Using her knowledge, skills, and competencies acquired through formal education, work experience and various extra-mural activities, Patience strives to empower others, especially women, children and the youth, so that they can realise their full potential.

 Looking forward, she hopes to use the skills she acquires from her PhD to influence the development of social protection policy and programmes in Malawi and the region, as one way of reducing poverty and investing in the lives of vulnerable people.

Carey Pike

Carey Pike is a 4th year MBChB student and soon-to-be (2023) PhD candidate at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She graduated with distinction from the University of Cape Town with a BSc (Hons) degree in Chemistry and from Oxford University with an MSc in Pharmacology.

Carey has worked for the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation as the executive research assistant to the Director, Professor Linda-Gail Bekker, since 2016. It was there that she developed her research interests in adolescent health and women’s health, specifically concerning sexual and reproductive healthcare delivery and HIV prevention. She has experience in designing, delivering, and evaluating health education and empowerment programmes for adolescent girls and young women.

Her PhD will focus on the roll-out of multiple HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) modalities (oral tablets and long-acting injectable and vaginal formulations) to diverse young populations, including adolescent girls and young women, in Cape Town, South Africa. Her project will investigate which modalities best support short- and long-term persistence on HIV PrEP, as well as how to implement a PrEP choice platform in a way that is effective, acceptable to young people and healthcare workers, and feasible to bring to scale. Her PhD will be undertaken as part of UCT’s combined MBChB-PhD programme. Carey plans to become a physician-scientist with a focus on sexual and reproductive health.