Bachelor of Pharmacy from Faculty of Pharmacy, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Additional Degrees and Certifications:
• Women Deliver Young Leaders Program E-Course 2 (February 2016)
• Women Deliver Young Leaders Program E-Course 1 (September 2015)
• Certificate in Logistics Management of Health Commodities (May 2015)

Awards Received:

Award:
NYSC State Merit Award
Awarding Organization:
Niger State Government, Nigeria
Date Awarded:
November 4, 2016

Award:
2016 World Contraception Day Ambassadors Grant
Awarding Organization:
Bayer/Women Deliver
Date Awarded:
August 12, 2016

Award:
Emerging Youth Leader
Awarding Organization:
Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health
Date Awarded:
September 25, 2013

Adebisi Adenipekun is the founder of Lighthouse Global Health Initiative (LGHI), a growing initiative that envisions a world where vulnerable populations (especially adolescents, women and rural/slum dwellers) lead healthy and productive lives. Through LGHI’s platform, Adebisi and his team have implemented public health campaigns which include the “Rural Contraceptives Access Campaign,” “Rural Empowerment and Health Promotion Project” for rural dwellers, “Your Health First Campaign” targeted at empowering domestic workers, and “SaveTheCervix campaign” which aims to reduce the burden of cervical cancer in Nigeria. Adebisi was invited to join the National Technical Working Group on Adolescent Health and Development in Nigeria in 2013, and his public health contribution was underscored by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Bill & Melinda Gates Institute’s scholarship to attend the third International Conference on Family Planning in 2013. Adebisi’s Family Planning Voices (FP Voices) interview was featured on both 2016 International Youth Day and World Contraception Day. He was a youth speaker at the 4th Women Deliver Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, and a non-state actor delegate to 2017 World Health Assembly. Adebisi is a Women Deliver Young Leader, a 2016 World Contraception Day Ambassador, and a 2017 Unleash SDG talents health category gold award winner. Adebisi trained as a pharmacist at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, and is currently a Master of Public Health candidate at University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

In addition to discharging my professional duties as a pharmacist to members of the community seeking family planning information and services, I work as a youth advocate for access to family planning among most vulnerable populations (especially rural/slum dwellers). I recently led a team of dynamic young people to implement Rural Contraceptives Access Campaign (RCAC) in Gyigyi and Sharuwadna hard-to-reach communities of Niger State. Through the RCAC project sponsored by World Contraception Day Ambassadors Project, we were able to reach more than 1,000 rural dwellers with information on family planning; engage political, community and religious leaders in promoting family planning; and trained about 30 men on benefits of family planning to their families.

Growing up with nine siblings in an average family in Nigeria was tough but the realities of the economic burden of a large family became apparent to me as an adolescent when my father had to retire from work due to ill-health. I saw my mother struggle to give me quality education and care for the family. With my background and scientific evidences in support of family planning, I have unrelenting passion for family planning advocacy.

As a youth advocate, having identified a gap in the community, I mobilized my peers to implement public health campaigns and outreaches to rural communities. For example, the recently concluded Rural Contraceptives Access Campaign (RCAC) implemented in Niger state required proper team envisioning in other to achieve the set objectives without any form of coercion. I saw the need and engaged my team to contribute to meeting the identified need within the available resources.

Building on the lessons learnt from my previous family planning advocacy efforts, I will maximize the grant to implement a project among rural men. Many of the previous efforts in rural communities have not made commensurate impact because of the significant roles men play in women’s family planning uptake. I want to engage more rural men in family planning advocacy. I will leverage on the new platform to get media visibility and key stakeholders support for family planning uptake.

https://www.mhtf.org/2016/09/26/changing-rural-child-and-maternal-health-through…