Baljit Cheema

Baljit is a first generation British-Indian, born and raised in Yorkshire, England, where her family came to work in the textile mills and factories. She was the first doctor in the family, specializing in Pediatric Emergency Medicine. Baljit is on a mission to help reduce global child mortality. She has done periods of emergency relief work in various countries and has worked in public hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa since 2005. She has been living in South Africa since 2009. With front line experience in multiple emergency medical environments, from hi-tech, high-income countries where miracles can be performed for every child, to brutally bare rooms where children die from diarrhea or chest infections due to absence of the basics. Baljit has gained first-hand practical knowledge and understanding about what goes wrong for sick children trying to access emergency health care systems in Africa and other low- and middle-income settings. She is hoping to learn skills during SPIA's MPP program that will enable her to use her insights to help shape global healthcare policy, to reduce the number of children dying unnecessarily in the poorer countries of the world.