Alisha Nicole Apale
Part-time Montreal resident, part-time Nairobi resident, Alisha Apale has been living, working and studying in Western Europe, South-East Asia, West India and East Africa.

Alisha completed a B.A. in Social Studies of Medicine at McGill University in 2003. Shortly thereafter, she traveled to the Thai-Burma border where she lived and worked in a community of non-status refugees from Burma. Her primary ambition was to gain further understanding of what it is like to live life in place characterized primarily by insecurity, thereby putting to test all she had learned in her undergraduate degree about health, marginalization, politics and inequity. Having documented the narratives of some of the former political prisoners, trafficked women and orphaned children she came to know, she and a classmate from McGill embarked on book project called Generation NGO. Now a complete manuscript, Generation NGO, a collection of provoking and reflective narratives written by young Canadians working in International Development, is currently under review for publication.

In 2004, Alisha left the border and returned to Montreal where she began working as a health research assistant and project co-coordinator for Dr. Vissandjée at the University of Montreal. From there, she took up a research internship with the Canadian International Development Agency and the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. In partnership with the University of Montreal and the Aga Khan Health Services in Gujarat, India, she undertook a study on community health research with an emphasis on determining the value of social capital to women’s health and empowerment in rural areas.

In early 2006 she moved to Nairobi, Kenya with her husband where they began building a small IT business based on Open Source. As part of widespread efforts to bridge the digital divide, their goal is to build an IT service that offers affordable and accessible IT systems and services for small and medium size enterprises operating in Kenya’s emerging economy. They also aspire to extend their services to the health sector in order to facilitate access to health care services, health literacy and equity in resource-poor areas.

An academic at heart, Alisha has continued her studies part-time throughout her early career experiences. Since graduating from McGill University, she has completed an MBA in Health Care Management and has attended various short courses, including Strategic Leadership in Health & Development at AMREF, Kenya (African Medical and Research Foundation), and HIV-AIDS Prevention and Community Counselling, Kenya. She also attended a Medical Anthropology seminar course in Technologies of Governance at McGill University.

She is currently an Erasmus Mundus Scholar and is undertaking a Masters degree in International Health, Research Methods. As part of the tropEd Masters of Science Programme, Alisha is beginning a one year study-tour of public and international health institutes in Europe, India, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom.