178 Appendices Acknowledgement My special appreciation goes to God for the success and completion of my PhD. Despite unforeseen circumstances, multiple trips, and caring and work demands, He gave me the strength to pull through successfully. My sincere appreciation goes to my supervisory team – Prof Diederick E. Grobbee, Dr Kerstin Klipstein-Grobusch, Dr Kennedy Otwombe and Dr Alinda G. Vos-Seda for their guidance and unwavering support throughout my PhD program. Your expertise and constructive feedback helped shape my research and significantly improved its quality. Thank you, Prof Grobbee, for being my promoter and believing firmly in me and my ability to produce quality research. I am deeply grateful to Kerstin for believing in me and providing timely support for all aspects of my PhD while ensuring I maintain a good work-life balance. Kennedy, thank you for all your encouragement and support from the University of the Witwatersrand up to this moment. You made yourself accessible and shared valuable insights with me at all stages of my PhD. Thank you, Alinda, for providing those practical insights into the PhD process, guiding me through every step, and making time to translate my thesis summary into Dutch. I am grateful to you all for your patience and dedication, which inspired me throughout this process. Furthermore, I thank my academic mentors, Dr Marianne Calnan and Dr Samson Haumba, for providing insight into the practical application of my research and additional guidance. Your mentoring boosted my confidence in navigating the different aspects of the PhD process. I appreciate the contributions of my PhD thesis assessors. Your comments and recommendations significantly improved the quality of my thesis and its presentation and ensured the different components were aligned. While studying, I gained a lot of insight from other faculty at Utrecht University and the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care. Thank you, Prof Frank Huisman. The course “This Thing Called Science” made me realise the more in-depth role of researchers within our society. Dr Joyce Brown, Dr George Downward, Dr Martin Heine, Dr Helene Voogdt-Pruis, and Dr Daniel Boateng, thank you for your different contributions during the global health seminars, the Summer School and an exciting ECTMIH 2023 conference. I am also grateful to the administrative team at the Julius Global Health and Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care – Josephine Rees, Jaeline Sterkenburg, Sophie ten Have, Juliette Mattijsen, Giene de Vries, Yayra Adzofu, Aswin Yau and Wouter Bongers, who assisted me with logistics for course registrations, flights, accommodation, and welfare during my visits to Utrecht. Thanks to Astrid Willemsen and other staff for hosting
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