Bede Chimezie Eziefule

2002 Advocate Bede Chimezie Eziefule currently serves as Project Director at the Center for the Right to Health (CRH) in Nigeria. CRH advocates for the full realization of the right to health in Nigeria and to promote respect for ethics and human rights in healthcare policies and practices for vulnerable groups such as people living with HIV/AIDS, women, youth and children. He manages the project from development to evaluation and designs capacity building projects on human rights issues such as sexual health, HIV/AIDS, STI and sexual minorities. He also conducts human resource development trainings on grant writing, research and human rights activism within the organization.

He highlights that his participation in HRAP “greatly enriched” his career and “immensely benefitted” his organization. He states, “The partnership with human rights organizations I developed while participating HRAP have facilitated my professional career with an opportunity to attend numerous international conferences and meetings. Also, the skills I received sharpened my theoretical understanding of human rights.” As a result, his profound understanding of human rights positively influenced on “increasing the quality of human rights researches and reports” that he conducted after the program.

Since his participation in HRAP, Bede developed the Sexual Minorities Project that mitigates the impact of HIV/AIDS among sexual minority groups. He also has started managing a project called “Health on Wheels” that provides mobile primary healthcare and education services to the rural communities suffering from poverty and geographical isolation. Due to his significant leadership role in HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, he was chosen to participate in International Leadership Visitors Program in 2008.

When asked for his final thoughts about his participation in HRAP, he concludes, “The friendships that I gained in New York have remained my greatest pillar of hope and encouragement for my work.”

—Article composed by Junghwa Lee, Program Coordinator, August 2011