To kick-off the eighth round of the AWARD Fellowship, a mentoring orientation workshop for the selected fellows and their mentors was held on February 19-23, 2018. The current cohort of AWARD Fellows is truly global comprising 28 scientists drawn from 8 Francophone and 4 Anglophone African countries, Spain, Fiji and Bangladesh. Among the participants at this workshop were Arshni Shandil and her mentor Logotonu Waqainabete from Fiji.