MESO+ was founded by three women from across the African continent and its diaspora, each bringing a distinct area of expertise to the mission. Meet them, with a short video introduction from each.
I am a mathematical modeller with a background in statistics, mathematical modelling, and public health. My professional work has taught me how to use data and evidence to understand health challenges and develop solutions. However, my motivation for starting MESO+ comes from experiences that are much closer to home.
Carine Frieda Idani is the Research Lead and co-founder of MESO+. A mathematician and epidemiologist by training, she has spent her career building evidence at the intersection of data and public health in Africa. Her conviction is simple: postpartum depression is one of the most prevalent yet most invisible conditions affecting African mothers, and that invisibility is not a coincidence, it is a research gap.
At MESO+, her role is to change that: putting rigorous evidence on the table, building the data that proves the problem exists at scale, and making sure every decision reflects what mothers in the field have actually told us. Having witnessed PPD affect women close to her, and as a soon-to-be mother herself, she is not just building a product. She is building what she wishes had existed.
carine.idani@mesoplus.org
Arlette is the Data & Intelligence Lead at MESO+, in charge of building the models that turn a mother's quiet answers into a signal her care team can trust and act on. She holds a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Mathematics, with a specialization in Statistics, from the University of Rwanda, and a Master of Science in Data Science from the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS Rwanda).
Her path since has run through tourism data analysis at the Rwanda Development Board, data analysis and engineering with different institutions, and she currently serves as a Data Science in Finance Research Fellow with the Cluster of Excellence at the University of Tübingen, building a habit throughout of looking for what the numbers usually leave out. She is also a woman who grew up watching the women around her carry things quietly, without anyone thinking to ask how they were doing; the quiet thread running underneath her work with MESO+.
Three areas of expertise, one shared conviction: that the best solution for African healthcare is one built from within it.
Read our valuesWe're always glad to meet clinicians, researchers and partners who share the mission.