Nigerian Activist Hauwa Ojeifo Wants You to Talk About Your Mental Health

Hauwa Ojeifo, Nigeria

Hauwa Ojeifo looks back on her decision to speak out about her struggles with mental health not as a choice, but an obligation. “Keeping quiet was literally a life-or-death situation,” she says. “And so I started to talk.”

After an abusive relationship and symptoms of undiagnosed bipolar disorder led her to suicidal ideation, she sought help from a psychiatrist. In 2016, she began to channel her experiences into a new project, a mental-health awareness blog called She Writes Woman. As it gained traction, Ojeifo realized that there was a need for a platform dedicated to centering the stories of people in her home country of Nigeria who were also facing difficulties with their mental health.

“Everyone was waiting for someone to be the first to speak, and I just felt an incredible sense of privilege and honor to be able to be in a position where I could use my voice,” she says.

Hauwa Ojeifo

Robin Hammond—Panos Pictures/Redux

At first, her goal was to provide support and bring awareness to a topic often considered taboo in a country with a population of 200 million and only 250 psychiatrists. She Writes Woman created a toll-free, 24/7 hotline, along with online and community-based support centers. Ojeifo says they were able to offer tangible support for people while also moving conversations about mental health out of the abstract. “We humanized the story, we humanized the numbers, and so mental health is no longer this thing that is so far away.”