In Memory of Dr. Hamidah Hussain

We are raising funds in memory of Dr. Hamidah Hussain, co-founding Director of IRD Global. She passed away in Karachi on October 27, 2022.

Hamidah was a pioneering public health professional whose innovative ideas and exceptional leadership improved and saved the lives of countless men, women and children across Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tajikistan, Indonesia, South Africa and the Philippines. She was the founding country director for IRD Bangladesh, where she also served as the senior strategy advisor to the National TB Control Program. Her portfolio of work includes active case finding for susceptible and drug-resistant TB, childhood TB, TB preventive services, childhood vaccines, preventable diseases, and malaria control programs.

Hamidah previously worked at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, at BRAC in Dhaka, and at the Aga Khan University in Karachi. She received her medical degree from the Aga Khan University, her Master’s in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and her Ph.D. in health economics from the University of Bergen.

She is survived by her husband, Shehzad Noorani, their son Hisbaan, her parents, and a brother.

Hamidah’s extraordinary courage, graciousness, wisdom, generosity and commitment to the underserved were widely admired and will be greatly missed. During her brief illness, she was actively raising funds for charity and for public health programs that she was passionate about. Her family has requested that anyone wishing to honour her memory make a donation that will then be sent on to support underserved communities in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The funds raised by this campaign will go towards IRD Global's Women's Health Program. This program will provide comprehensive services to women in low income communities with a focus on high burden conditions. Any donations will be sent on to support underserved communities in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and beyond.