About Us
Who we are
In Nigeria, 57 Million People do not have access to safe, clean water.
Unsafe Water and lack of sanitation trap women and girls in a circle of ill health, poor education, poor career opportunities, overall poverty and even early death.
Collecting water makes it difficult for girls to attend school and work, and this holds women back from achieving what they want from life.
Poor sanitation makes adolescent girls and women’s lives fraught with dangers ranging from being attacked whilst using unsafe outdoor toilets to dying from childbirth-related infections caused by poor hygiene.
Lack of water and basic sanitation facilities have made menstrual hygiene management difficult, thereby making adolescent girls in school ages stay away from school during their period.
PHAAE team are staunch campaigners for sustainable change and thereby recruits and trains health and hygiene promotion volunteers, also builds the skills and knowledge of local people through education and communication programmes, empower elementary school children on handwashing best practices and good hygiene behaviour, because believe Children are strong agents of change.
In terms of the aids PHAAE gives, we deliver water taps and toilets to communities and schools in desperate need.
Our Vision
Our Vision is of an Africa where women and girls from all communities are empowered to lead healthy and fulfilling lives in safe, healthy and disease free conditions. And where inequality gaps will be closed for good.
OUR MISSION
Our work is initiated to strengthen Nigeria and other developing countries through well thought out educational health communication channels thereby increasing health literacy level which is the degree where individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.
PHAAE enlists the help of experts, staff and volunteers to deliver carefully researched and targeted public health communication programs as well as direct interventions to improve access to knowledge and resources for school children, adolescent girls, women and the entire community.
We aim to galvanize entire communities into action to protect, maintain and improve their own health and that of their children.
In PHAAE, We are dedicated to making the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals 6 Clean Water & Sanitation a reality in Nigeria and Africa and sharing what we have learned with organizations worldwide.
OUR STRATEGY
Our work is initiated to strengthen Nigeria and other developing countries through well thought out educational health communication channels thereby increasing health literacy level which is the degree where individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.
Social and Health Marketing
We know that social marketing is widely used to influence health behavior. So we use a wide range of health communication strategies based on mass media, interpersonal, mediated and other modes of communication and marketing methods such as message placement, promotion, dissemination and community level outreach to achieve this.
Health Education and Training
As informed and research based health educators, we work to increase health awareness among people, thus leading them to change their behavior and adopt positive attitude towards their wellbeing. We generate write ups, arts and make them very educational and self-explanatory at a glance, we have cartoon stories for children, game books, and educational coloring books for even elementary school pupils.
Aids
In cases of clear or desperate needs, we offer aids and assistance like water tap construction, toilets, and good sanitation means like trash cans, clean water storage. Other ways we have given aids are through our Hygiene Kits, which are of four different kinds. The K2 Also known as the Kid’s Kit for Good Hand Hygiene, The Purity Kit for Menstrual Hygiene Management, The Emergency Hygiene Kit, for Families in Emergency areas, and the Family Kit for everyday hygiene needs for the family.
User Friendly Interventions and Programs and Community Practice
A user friendly and community friendly intervention is what we have adopted. And a user friendly approach to program evaluation and effective community intervention for families. We also partner with communities to understand and address critical barriers to health equity.
Health Promotion
Health Promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over their health through advocacy and intersectoral action. The concept referred here not only deals with dissemination of simple health facts but also information and skills, information on how to prevent diseases/illnesses, workshops, seminars on different issues.
Media / Digital Efficiency
Our programs are driven by both creative strengths and effective media planning. We make the media our ally thereby we are quick to address campaign performances at each stage and with a wide coverage. Our digital tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube and Website extend the reach of phaae.org and encourage discussions to stretch across the globe.
Entertainment Education
Through entertainment education, we convey health messages to our stake holders and these entertainment education can come in the various forms include; music, drama, dance e.tc.
Partnerships
We form useful partnership with other non- profits and even with corporate profit making organizations achieve a common purpose. We work with a variety of partners including academic, community, funders and more. Interested in exploring ways to partner with us? Contact us
Social and Behavioral Change Communication
SBCC is the strategic use of communication to promote positive health outcomes based on proven health theories and models of behavior change. We are able to do this through interpersonal channels and mass media to achieve defined behavioral objective.
Advocacy
We create user friendly fact-filled advocacy tools mainly targeted at policy makers and stakeholders in Nigeria
Our Values
Accountability
We are very accountable for every of our ambitious goals and we deliver on every of our commitments.
Transparency
We propagate clearness and avoid and detest ambiguity in all our dealings and engagements.
Learning
We learn and adapt to every of our experiences to improve our performance and impact.
Professionalism
In our work and displays we demonstrate a high level of professionalism and we are culturally sensitive when working with any population.
Our Team
Dick de Jong
Technical Advisor
Mr. Jong is a Journalist and first graduate from the School of Journalism in Utrecht (1969), with 40 years of experience as a practicing communication specialist, including seven years in international and national journalism
J. Uchechi Okonmah
Founder / Chief Oversight Officer
Uc as she is fondly called is a Strategic Communications Specialist with a range of skills from advocacy, social & behavioral change communication, to health promotion, public and government relations.
Chima E. Onuekwe
Technical Advisor
Dr Chima is a public health communication specialist with a bias for health behaviour change communication, message design and media effects, applying entertainment education as a communication strategy.
Attended international courses including: Health Risk Communication at Harvard University, Integrated Marketing Communication for Behavioral Impact in Health and Social Development
at New York University and Strategic Health Communication at Johns Hopkins University, all in the USA.
Fina Ozobu-Okilo
Director, Health Communications/Education
Fina is the Health Education and Communication Expert. She prepares tailored messages for health outreaches, health education leaflets and IEC materials. An experienced hygiene Instructor with over 4 years’ experience. Fina is a graduate of English and a PDIA expert from the prestigious Harvard University.
Uwaye Ideh
Programs Manager
Uwa develops program initiative and project outline for the organization; She is also an expert in Implementation, Research, report generation and partner identification. Uwa is a Public Health Professional with a bias is Health Promotion from Leeds Beckett University, England.
Sophie Larrouy
Director, Programs
Sophie is the director of all Programs in PHAAE, and she oversees Grant Writing, Project Management. With a certification in EU Funding, grant writing and project management. She is currently enrolled in the micro master program in data, Economics and development policy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
