Ambassador in Action
Hear from One Young World Ambassador and Founder of She Writes Woman, Hauwa Ojeifo
Speakers
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Hauwa OjeifoHuman Rights Activist and Mental Health AdvocateHauwa Ojeifo
Human Rights Activist and Mental Health Advocate
Hauwa Ojeifo publicly identifies as a person living with a mental health condition and psychosocial disability. Popularly known as “the voice of mental health” in Nigeria, she has received numerous local and international honours and recognitions.
She is the Executive Director of She Writes Woman (SWW), an award-winning movement that gives mental health a voice in Nigeria. She is also the creator of Safe Place Nigeria, a digital community providing mental health tools, resources, a 24/7 toll-free helpline, access to counsellors and therapists, and a supportive community. As a sexual violence survivor, she is giving mental health and sexual violence a voice, challenging misinformation and normalising mental health conversations in Nigeria.
Hauwa holds an MSc in Investment Banking & Islamic Finance from Henley Business School, University of Reading, and has worked across six industries, including health, finance, fashion, event planning, retail services, and digital marketing. She is a certified integrative mental health coach who uses her lived experience to advocate for people with psychosocial disabilities across Nigeria and beyond.
She is a recipient of the Queen’s Young Leaders Award (2018), a One Young World Ambassador, an AstraZeneca Young Health Programme Scholar, the first African recipient of the MTV Europe Music Generation Change Award (2018), and an Obama Africa Leader (2019). In 2020, she became the first person with a mental health condition to testify before the Nigerian National Assembly on the rights of persons with mental health conditions and psychosocial disabilities, helping secure reconsideration of legislation and the subsequent passage of a more rights-respecting Mental Health Act.
Hauwa is also a Mandela Washington Fellowship Awardee (2020), recipient of the 2020 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Goalkeepers Global Goals Changemaker Award, the inaugural Human Rights Watch Marca Bristo Fellowship (2020), among other honours and recognitions.