Mental Health Activist, Nigeria’s Hauwa Ojeifo to address the United Nations

Nigerian Mental Health Activist and inaugural Marca Bistro Fellow, Hauwa Ojeifo, is set to give the opening address at the 14th United Nations Conference of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Founded to help actualize the implementation of the articles of the Convention on the Rights of Persons Living with Disabilities (UN CRPD) in party countries, the UN COSP is an annual conference adopted in 2008 by the UN’s General Assembly in fulfilment of Article 40 of the UNCRPD which provides for the establishment of a space where state-parties can discuss the implementation of the UNCRPD.

Ojeifo, who is the Founder and Executive Director of She Writes Woman Mental Health Initiative, will set the tone of the conference by giving the opening statement. As the first person living with a mental health condition to appear before the National Assembly in that capacity, Ojeifo’s work at She Writes Woman has helped highlight the realities of persons living with mental health conditions in Nigeria while empowering them to co-create solutions that address these realities.