Reseau Docteur, meaning ‘Doctor’s Network’ was founded in the US by a Nigerian Alexander Oladele.
“America needs more black doctors and there is a wealth of data that shows that African Americans are more likely to trust a healthcare system when the health provider actually looks like them,” Oladele said. “There is a huge gap within the healthcare community and it’s due to a lack of diversity.”
He added that they formed the network to change the narrative and perception of blacks, saying they have achieved a lot in that regard.
He said: “The goal of forming Reseau Docteur was to reverse the psychological impact that was affecting many African Americans at a point where a lot of black men were getting killed. Sadly, many of these images and interactions with police were televised. You can only imagine what happens to a people’s mental health after watching their own people become the victims of police brutality over and over again. We started Reseau Docteur with the intention of displaying positive images of black men and women in a variety of careers including medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, law etc. With time the organization began to grow and today we have much more than just a social media page. We have built a community of minority professionals where we can continue to share our visions.”
Reseau Docteur started through a social media page but has become a society of black professionals who impact their society through knowledge and mentorship. And they have real good news to share about their activities.
“There have been so many amazing moments. One of our proudest is our yearly mentorship program where we provide mentorship to students all over the country by way of online webinar-based discussions. It’s an 8-10 week program and each topic is presented by a Doctor or a professional student within our network. This program is for students who are interested in professional careers such as medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and to date, we have awarded over 200+ students with certificates of completion.
“Another highlight is when, through the help of our social media community I was able to raise over 6000 USD within 3 days for the victims of Hurricane Harvey, one of the most deadliest hurricanes to hit US mainlands. Members of our team then flew to Texas following the aftermath to provide money to the victims as well as aid during their time of difficulty,” Oladele stated.
On why they adopted a French name “Reseau Docteur”, Oladele said they started out in English ‘Doctors Network’ until one of their members suggested the French version of it which sounded better to everyone.
“While thinking about a name initially, I mentioned to my two co-founders that it should be some type of Doctors Network and Drs. Trevor Thomas and Isaac O’Neal looked up the phrase ‘Doctor’s Network’ in French. What we found was ‘Docteur Reseau’ and we initially started marketing this name until someone on twitter told us to flip it around to Reseau Docteur.
“Since then the name has not changed and has grown into a brand that thousands of people now recognize. I am the principal founder. I also want to mention Dr Rosetta Garries who was our medical advisor and mentor to many of the students and professionals in the Network. She’s a plastic surgeon based out of New York and is a celebrity physician to many renown individuals such as Serena and Venus Williams.”
https://guardian.ng/features/the-world-needs-more-black-doctors-says-reseau-docteur-founder/
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