I am passionate about initiatives that provide healthcare services to vulnerable populations in Africa.
I grew up in one of the most environmentally-damaged slums in the oil-producing region of Nigeria. Our farmlands were poisoned with hydrocarbons from oil spillage, and during the rainy seasons, water from the Atlantic Ocean floods into our homes with the oil spillage and waste.
Ingestion of this water, skin contact, and inhalation of spilled crude oil constituents can lead to respiratory infections, heart and lung diseases, fatal childhood diseases, cancer, mental illness, diarrhea, sore eyes, itchy skin, and more.
Through my elder siblings, I was exposed earlier in life to social initiatives that addressed the challenges and problems we faced in the slums. I felt our community wasn’t getting enough health care, and I felt a strong desire to protect everyone’s health. That desire drove me forward, but I had difficulties scaling through school. I attended a school in the slums that had no seats for pupils. We had to sit on the floor while learning. My family was later able to raise funds to send me to a privately owned secondary school outside our community and the university I attended, with a partially funded scholarship scheme from the community I grew up in. Finally, I became a registered nurse.
I founded the 360degreeHEALTH NETwork the year after I graduated to help vulnerable communities access free and affordable healthcare. In four years, I have organized medical outreaches in 58 communities in Nigeria. We organize health awareness campaigns, research, health education, free drug distribution, vaccination programs, and diagnostic testing, serving about 22,000 people.
My dream is to ensure a healthier future for communities in sub- Saharan Africa by 2030. Through partnerships with international donors and governments, I plan to raise funds to set up educational and research institutions for healthcare providers. I will also focus on developing a healthcare delivery system that permeates the wider gap in culture, social activism, and politics. If my dreams and initiatives are fully implemented and achieved, it will transform the lives of over 100 million people for the better.