Advocacy

My vision, mission & everything inbetween

What I do

I work to improve quality access to HIV, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Gender Based Violence services, and climate action for adolescents and young people. This is built on research, mobilization and partnership with the platform of leading organizations, including UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO, Global Fund, amongst others.Using peer education, community outreaches and storytelling, I create safe spaces for young people to get accurate information and make informed choices about their bodies and their health. I advocate for youth friendly policies that creates ease of access to SRHR, GBV and HIV services because information alone isn’t enough if the services aren’t there when young people need them.

Wise Up Campaign 2025 at Carnival Calabar, the biggest African street party

One story I can never forget happened during an obstetric fistula outreach. A girl, barely out of high school, told us how she got her period for the first time at 15. Growing up in a typical African home were SRHR discussions aren’t normalized, she was confused and reported to her mum, only to be scolded and accused of “knowing boys”. When the cramps started the next month, she turned to her friends instead. They told her the only way to stop the pain was to sleep with a guy. So she did. That single piece of deadly misinformation led to an unplanned pregnancy, school drop out, stigma, abuse and abandonment from her parent, and eventually a prolonged labour that claimed her baby’s life and left her with obstetric fistula and HIV. She survived… but her dreams didn’t.This is one of many realities young people live through. That’s why I do this. Because one missing piece of correct information can destroy a young person’s entire future. Because no young person should ever feel ashamed for something as natural as their period. Because every young person deserves accurate information, access to services, and a community that lifts them up instead of shaming or abusing them.

School outreaches

That’s my mission. That’s my fire. And that’s exactly why I’ll keep showing up for young people in the at the grass root communities, schools, online, at policy tables, and everywhere young voices need to be heard.

Other outreach activities

Were it all started

It didn’t happen with one big lightning moment but a quiet build up that slowly took over my focus. During my public health studies, I did a lot of field research and community work, I started seeing the numbers and the real stories behind the data. Young people dealing with things nobody was talking about. Communities completely cut off from basic health services.Then 2020 came. The lockdown hit, and everything got worse. Rape cases spiked. Girls couldn’t access pads or contraceptives. Young people had nowhere to go for help. That’s when I volunteered with a small community based organization working implementing a UNFPA project. They were giving out dignity kits, creating safe spaces, and providing creative response initiatives to gender based violence. They brought me in as a peer health educator. That’s where it really began for me. We started going into communities, talking to young people, starting clubs, teaching them how to speak up for themselves, and linking them to services. Watching those young people grow did something to me. I realized I didn’t just want to collect data about problems. I wanted to be part of the solution.

Community based youth clubs and WARCH project closeout event, the bedrock of my journey as an advocate

During the project close out, they invited a few of us to share what we’d done to partners from the EU, UNFPA and WHO in Nigeria. That moment opened the door to something much bigger, the UNFPA Youth Participatory Platform (UNFPA Youth Cohort). From there, everything started growing. More opportunities, more organizations, more ways to reach young people.Everything I do today, the school outreaches, the online content, the policy advocacy, the partnerships, all of it started from those early days in the community, sitting with young people, listening to their stories, and deciding I never wanted another young person to go through what I had seen. That’s where my journey began. And I haven’t looked back since.

UNFPA YPP onboarding event, 2023

How it’s going

Today, I’m still running community outreaches, training young people as peer educators, creating content that speaks their language, and sitting at tables where decisions are made. The only difference is the scale keeps growing. I’m actively creating safe, youth led spaces especially for the most vulnerable young people in hard to reach communities, young people with disabilities, internally displaced persons, and LGBTQ+ youth. We don’t just talk about access, we make it real.I’m constantly learning, innovating, and looking for new ways to reach more young people. Whether it’s through digital campaigns that travel across borders or building stronger peer networks that can stand on their own, I’m pushing to make the work bigger and more sustainable.My eyes are now set on the global stage. I want to take the realities I see at the community level, the data, the stories, the lived experiences and carry them into international conversations. I want to influence policies that don’t just look good on paper but actually work for young people in places like mine.Everything I do is tied to the Sustainable Development Goals because when we talk about good health and well being, gender equality, climate action, or reduced inequalities, young people must be at the center of all of it. It’s the compass for every project, every partnership, and every decision I make. While I push for policy change at the top, I want to keep implementing real solutions on the ground.This journey is still very much alive and I’m only getting started.