2020
Olabode Ekerin
- Age: 30
- | He/him/his
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While the world seeks sexual liberation, there would be no genuine sexual liberation for women, girls, young people and sexual minorities without access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights information, better and safer contraception, the right to safe, legal abortion, and most importantly, a gender sensitive approach to solving problems. We, young people, must wake up, come together, and fight for the world we want to see.
- Olabode Ekerin
Bio
Olabode Ekerin was born and raised in Nigeria. He received a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Lagos State University in 2019. As State Clinical Mentor at the State AIDS and STI Control Program in Kaduna State, he coordinate state-wide activities on the HIV prevention and treatment program in the Kaduna State, Nigeria. He also provides on-site clinical training to health care workers on HIV treatment and the treatment of tuberculosis and other opportunistic diseases while also assisting them to identify key bottlenecks affecting patients’ access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and helping them with direct patient care as needed.
Olabode is the Project Director at the WiseUp Initiative for Good Health and Community Development, a youth led organization he founded in his 5th year in medical school where he supervises the designing, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of sexual and reproductive health projects, with a specific focus on sexual and reproductive health education, contraception and condoms, peer support, and pediatric/youths to adult HIV care and treatment transitions.
Currently, he is leading a nationwide advocacy for the training of health professions students with an inclusive curriculum that will cater for the health of LGBT people in Nigeria.
What ignited your pursuit for gender equality?
My passion was ignited by my desire to see a world where every woman, girl, and young person lives a healthy and productive life. I have had personal experiences due to the consequences of the lack of access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights information and services.
Please share your biggest wins as an advocate for gender equality.
I was part of the team that implemented the Women Deliver funded project “FPforCampuses” where we trained student influencers at Lagos State University on the use of media and storytelling to develop advocacy messages to push for the proper translation of the reproductive health policy into action in the university.
Outside of your gender equality advocacy work, what do you enjoy doing?
Event planning, research, networking, photography, and traveling.
Languages Spoken:
- English (Advanced/Native)
- French (Elementary)
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