ISHIMWE Marie Chantal

"To whom it may concern,
With pleasure, I am writing this recommendation letter for Mrs. Marie Chantal ISHIMWE. During my work as a supervisor of a PhD candidate, Mr. Phenias Nsabimana, who is on the sandwich type between Ghent University and the University of Rwanda, I met Mr. Marie Chantal ISHIMWE in the function of a data enumerator after her graduation as a Bachelor in Nutrition and Dietetics, the University of Kigali, Rwanda. My encounter with Mrs. Marie Chantal ISHIMWE was in the context of the PhD study titled “Evaluation of dietary practices and associated risk factors for metabolic syndrome among the young adult population of Rwanda”.

By way of background, I am a senior researcher and a Guest Professor (between 2023 and 2024) at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care of the University of Ghent, Belgium. I am a human nutritionist whose interests are in research and development in undernutrition, obesity, and other aspects of maternal and child health. Over the last fifteen years, I have worked with international researchers in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the States and managed tens of international projects. I am also supervising FIFTEEN PhD projects since 2017. I believe I have a good basis for comparison to be able to evaluate Mrs. Marie Chantal ISHIMWE based upon the six years of collaboration.

Mrs. Marie Chantal ISHIMWE is a collaborator who has shown a great potential and critical thinking during our training workshop in preparation for the implementation of the project “Evaluation of dietary practices and associated risk factors for metabolic syndrome among the young adult population of Rwanda”, in 2019. Mrs. Marie Chantal ISHIMWE has joined our team as an assistant researcher since November 2019 in the very specific aspect of dietary assessment in young adults in Rwanda. However, she has also provided inputs for all the aspects of the project including implementation, laboratory analyses, development of standard recipes, and contact with the communities. Her support and leadership were instrumental and key for the success of the project. During the COVID pandemic, and after lifting the lockdown restrictions, she shines as the coordinator of the project and its activities for her communication and management skills.

I found Mrs. Marie Chantal ISHIMWE to be an incredibly quick learner on almost all aspects of the areas in which we interacted. She quickly grasped all of the concepts related to the research methods that we are using and provided valuable inputs into aspects of diet.

I was personally impressed by her passion, commitment to fieldwork, tool contextualization, and dispute handling during data collection in the community she has demonstrated during our time together. Her commitment, support, teamwork spirit and leadership potential are exemplary.

I strongly recommend the application of Mrs. Marie Chantal ISHIMWE and I would be happy to provide any additional information if needed.
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