Pioneers: Ann Mulyanti
Feb 04, 2011
ITCHING to follow her father’s footsteps, 18-year-old Ann Mulyanti was not redundant like most of her contemporaries. During her S.4 vacation, she always tagged along her father as he went to work.
First female pharmacist in Uganda
By Vicky Wandawa
ITCHING to follow her father’s footsteps, 18-year-old Ann Mulyanti was not redundant like most of her contemporaries. During her S.4 vacation, she always tagged along her father as he went to work.
The father, Sirasi Mubanda, was a senior medic at Mulago Hospital.
“I admired and learned as he and his colleagues worked, mixing and dispensing drugs. Originally, I dreamed of doing medicine, but the experience altered my passion to pharmacy,†she recalls.
Nine months down the road, it was time for university education. Unfortunately, there was no institution in Uganda offering a bachelors in pharmacy.
Her father took her to the UK. However, not for a bachelors in pharmacy immediately. She studied the equivalent of high school specialising in science subjects. This was in Bath, and later Norwood technical colleges, for three years.
A year into her studies, she was awarded a scholarship from the Buganda government. The scholarship stretched to her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy at Manchester University.
In 1961, she returned, becoming the first female pharmacist in Uganda. She worked with Buganda medical stores and later Mulago Hospital. A year later, she got married to Justine Mulyanti, an economist. They had five children, four boys and a girl.
In 1972, when Asians were ordered out of the country, she acquired a pharmacy from an Indian friend and named it Kampala pharmacy.
In 1995, she resorted to supervising other pharmacies on a part time basis, to date.
By Vicky Wandawa
ITCHING to follow her father’s footsteps, 18-year-old Ann Mulyanti was not redundant like most of her contemporaries. During her S.4 vacation, she always tagged along her father as he went to work.
The father, Sirasi Mubanda, was a senior medic at Mulago Hospital.
“I admired and learned as he and his colleagues worked, mixing and dispensing drugs. Originally, I dreamed of doing medicine, but the experience altered my passion to pharmacy,†she recalls.
Nine months down the road, it was time for university education. Unfortunately, there was no institution in Uganda offering a bachelors in pharmacy.
Her father took her to the UK. However, not for a bachelors in pharmacy immediately. She studied the equivalent of high school specialising in science subjects. This was in Bath, and later Norwood technical colleges, for three years.
A year into her studies, she was awarded a scholarship from the Buganda government. The scholarship stretched to her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy at Manchester University.
In 1961, she returned, becoming the first female pharmacist in Uganda. She worked with Buganda medical stores and later Mulago Hospital. A year later, she got married to Justine Mulyanti, an economist. They had five children, four boys and a girl.
In 1972, when Asians were ordered out of the country, she acquired a pharmacy from an Indian friend and named it Kampala pharmacy.
In 1995, she resorted to supervising other pharmacies on a part time basis, to date.