Matshidiso Moeti is the first female Regional Director for Africa for the World Health Organization (WHO). Now she’s the face of the COVID-19 fight in Africa, but she says facing the pandemic is easier than where she started her career as a doctor - fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s.  Now, she says, we’re willing to talk about inequalities and tackle stigma about disease.

Matshidiso talks to Melissa about her childhood in South Africa and Botswana, and her fears about the effect of COVID-19, especially on women’s lives. ”The impact on women economically is going to make them even more vulnerable to many things, not just to COVID itself", she says.