Yinka Jegede-Ekpe
Yinka Jegede-Ekpe | |
---|---|
Born | 1978 (age 45–46) HIV-positive |
Children | 3 |
Awards | Reebok Human Rights Award (2004) |
Yinka Jegede-Ekpe (born c. 1978)
Early life
When she was 19 and living in the city of
Career
Jegede-Ekpe became an activist raising awareness of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria and set up the Nigerian Community of Women Living With HIV/AIDS organisation. The organisation aimed to transmit information and to help the voices of women to be heard. It planned to set up funds to help women in crisis and to educate orphans.[4] She commented later that "when people like myself come out, you see the faces of the epidemic for the first time. I'm not a fact or figure. And they can see that people like me can live a normal life".[3] As of 2004, nearly 6 percent of the Nigerian population (7 million people) had HIV/AIDS and 75 percent of all HIV-positive Africans aged between 15 and 24 were female.[5][4] Speaking at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, Jegede-Ekpe remarked that the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Nigeria would not be solved until women and men were treated equally.[5]
Jegede-Ekpe became a consultant for
See also
References
- ^ "Positive mother speaks out". The New Humanitarian. 27 April 2007. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
- ^ a b c "Positive mother speaks out". The New Humanitarian. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 25 April 2007. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ a b c Donnelly, John (10 March 2004). "A name, not a number - Taipei Times". Taipei Times. Archived from the original on 1 September 2006. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ a b Fleshman, Michael. "Women: the face of AIDS in Africa". Africa Renewal. United Nations Department of Public Information. Archived from the original on 1 May 2019. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ a b Cunningham, Carissa (18 March 2004). "Human rights award winner speaks at SPH". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ Staff, W. W. D. (7 May 2004). "Reebok's Human Rights Stars". WWD. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
Further reading
- Bryant, Elizabeth (2004). "Q & A with: Yinka Jegede-Ekpe". Ford Foundation Report. 35 (2).[dead link]