Garazi Zulaika is a public health epidemiologist and researcher who joined LSTM in January 2016. Working both as a Technical Officer on the Cups or Cash for Girls Trial and a full-time doctoral candidate, she has lived and worked full-time in Kisumu, Kenya. There she provides technical and logistical support and helps implement the longitudinal randomised-controlled trial which looks at whether cash transfers or menstrual cup solutions can improve the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and schooling outcomes in a cohort of 4000+ adolescent schoolgirls (JGHT, PI: Phillips-Howard). The longitudinal follow-up of this trial looking at girls longer term wellbeing and life chances as they transition into adulthood is planned through 2024. She has also led field research on a nested CACHe sub-study investigating how the vaginal microbiome of girls is impacted by sexual debut and by different menstrual products (NIH, PI: Mehta), and on a project investigating the mental health and wellbeing outcomes of girls who are out-of-school (MRC, PI: Phillips-Howard). Over the past year, she has also researched how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted adolescent pregnancy and schooling amongst these adolescent girls whose schooling was interrupted by the pandemic.
Throughout her time at LSTM Garazi has helped to conduct numerous systematic reviews and has supervised related dissertation projects conducted by LSTM masters students.
In addition to working on the sexual and reproductive health of young women and girls, Garazi has
collaborated with LVCT Kenya on designing research studies documenting intimate partner violence; and has also focused attention on menstrual health research, first working on a menstrual health study funded through UNICEF-India exploring the menstrual needs of Indian schoolgirls and later supporting Grand Challenges Canada Innovators by helping develop menstrual health measurement frameworks. She continues to work on collaborative teams promoting menstrual health research priorities.
Previously in her career Garazi worked in Tete Province, Mozambique on child malnutrition and preventable blindness with Helen Keller International and later ran projects on the built environment and health in Rio das Pedras, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University. Garazi studied Global Health and Biotechnology at Georgetown University and later obtained an MPH in Epidemiology and Global Health from Columbia University, New York.
Garazi is fluent in her native Basque, English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Grants:
Co-investigator: Measuring the medium-term impact of school-based interventions as girls transition into adulthood Medical Research Council.
Co-investigator: Menstrual Health and Hygiene Research Priorities, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council.
Co-investigator: Menstrual and health solutions for out-of-school adolescent girls Medical Research Council.