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Up Close … with Dr Naomi Ferguson (Adeline) |20 March 2018

‘Help others rise, even if that helps them rise higher than you’

 

 

Only daughter of Barney and Daniella Adeline, Dr Naomi Ferguson (nee Adeline) was born and raised in Seychelles.

“I grew up with my two brothers, Gama and Loni, which is appropriate given that I was named after the Singaporean group ‘Naomi and the boys’,” she says.

She attended Anse Etoile crèche and primary school followed by English River secondary school.

She pursued her A-levels in Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics at the Seychelles Polytechnic and then completed her Bachelor in Medicine and Bachelor in Surgery (MBBS) at Melaka Manipal Medical College (twinning programme in India and Malaysia).

She currently holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

She was also part of the Seychelles National Swimming team in her teenage years – having represented Seychelles in the African Championships in Cairo, Egypt 2002 and Indian Ocean Games in Mauritius in 2003.

“My brothers and I have had quite an active childhood which included swimming, surfing and scuba diving. I learned to scuba dive at the age of 14 in the hope of one day becoming a marine biologist. Instead, I became a doctor and married a scuba diver instructor,” she says.

Dr Adeline is married to Calum Ferguson, whom she met on Aldabra in 2012.

“I am now officially Naomi Ferguson but professionally still use the name Dr Naomi Adeline,” she says.

 

Professional life

Growing up, Dr Adeline dreamt of becoming a marine biologist, or maybe a vet. The aim was to work with animals instead of people. “Funny how that panned out. Turns out I love working with people!” she says.

“I started working with the Ministry of Health in April 2012 straight out of medical school. I guess my passion went from wanting to help people on an individual basis, to wanting to help the community as a whole to remain healthy and focus on prevention. I love health promotion, and have been active in several media and social media movement to do just that,” she says.

Dr Adeline runs a Facebook page called ‘Health Education Seychelles’, ‘Dr Adeline’ programme on Telesesel and a monthly Youth Health column in Seychelles NATION which are on-going. In recent years, there were ‘Viv Byen’ on SBC radio, and ‘Health corner’ in ‘Jojo and Friends’ on SBC television.

She is currently based at the Communicable Disease Control Unit (CDCU) on most days of the week and at the Youth Health Centre on Wednesday afternoons.

“The full time job in working hours, along with recording health programmes and writing health articles and posts after hours can fill up my days pretty quickly. I get moments where I feel overwhelmed, but I absolutely love my job! I end every single day knowing I have helped at least one person - on most days many people,” she says.

 

Key achievements

•                     Positive Youth Image Award English River school 2003

•                     Positive Youth Image Award Seychelles Polytechnic 2005

•                     President’s Cup Seychelles Polytechnic 2005 graduation ceremony

•                     Top 28 young people making a difference in Seychelles 2015 (Also part of top 10)

•                     Among 500 young Africans in Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders 2015 where I did six weeks Public Management at Howard University in Washington DC.

She also made it to top 100 to do a Professional Development Experience as an attachment at Multnomah Public Health department in Portland, Oregon for six weeks.

 

Social life

Naomi has been back in the pool on most days, swimming at 5am, along with a few ex-swimmers. She is planning to participate in the Open Water swimming competition at Beau Vallon in May.

She also runs 5 to 10km every Thursday afternoon at Stad Popiler.

“A good crowd comes down to Stad Popiler on Thursday afternoon to walk or run, giving a great atmosphere of the community getting active. It is open to anyone who wishes to join,” says Dr Adeline.

Dr Adeline and her husband both love scuba diving.

“We haven’t been diving as often as we used to recently due to our busy schedules. He is quite a spontaneous person though, so we do end up randomly going hiking or for a swim at a beach on weekends every now and then,” she says.

She says she owes a lot to her parents, brothers, and her amazing husband who have allowed her to spread her wings and be ambitious throughout the years, knowing that the risk of falling is always there.

“Where I am today has a lot to do with being surrounded by these amazing sisterly friends who have always been supportive and genuinely encouraging. We have been friends since we were still in school, and have been there for each other throughout life. I strongly believe that having such a positive vibe around makes failures easy to cope with and successes worth celebrating,” she says.

Advice to youth

She is advising young people to remember to help others rise as well, even if that helps them rise higher than you. We are here for each other.

“My advice to youths of today is to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough. Just go for it. And while you are on this journey, be kind to people. Everyone is going through some sort of struggle,” she says.

 

By Ralista Hortere

 

 

 

 

 

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