Interview with Ngozi Iwere

Abstract

Ngozi Iwere was born on August 12, 1956 in Illah Delta State Nigeria. As a lifelong activist, she played a major role in the creation of the organization, Women in Nigeria (WIN). Ngozi Iwere attended the College of Education, Abraka, Delta State, Nigeria where she received a National Certificate in Education (NCE, 1977). In 1980, she enrolled in undergraduate degree program at the Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria and graduated Cum Laude in French. An activist in college, Ngozi Iwere worked briefly as a journalist with the now-defunct African Guardian, a weekly news/features magazine in Lagos, Nigeria and the Business in ECOWAS, a bilingual Sub-regional news/features magazine. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Community Life Project (CLP), a not-for-profit participatory, grassroots development organization (1992) and the Reclaim Naija Grassroots Movement (2010), a movement for civic engagement. The CLP program works with existing community networks like hair and beauty salon unions, artisans, traders in market places, small business unions, and schools to develop and disseminate health information and health education. She is also the coordinator of the African Feminist Forum (AFF), a diverse group of self-identified African feminist, activists, researchers, and practitioners from across Africa. As an HIV/AIDS and women’s reproductive health and rights activist, Ngozi Iwere designed a community-based model for HIV/AIDS prevention that targets the entire community rather than small, high-risk populations. The strategy seeks to reduce stigma by promoting health-seeking behaviors among communities.