ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2020
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. In the three months the application was open in 2020, 15,159 young leaders applied to join the Class of 2020 on 1,458 campuses across 135 nations. 80 campuses worldwide (just 6%) were selected to host the 1,000+ Millennium Fellows. The Class of 2020 is bold, innovative, and inclusive.
UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT EMMANUEL ERHASOGIE EGUAE, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2020.
University of Benin | Benin City, Nigeria | Advancing SDG 3 & UNAI 3
" In Nigeria, one of the challenges to medical care is the consumption of unverified health information among the population. This challenge sets up a vicious cycle that culminates in poor health status, needless visual impairments and even avoidable blindness. I have set out to tackle misinformation, dispel rumors and unfounded practices involving the eyes. I am optimistic that this would translate to improved health literacy status of individuals in my community which could cause an uptake of medical services. As a result, needless visual impairments and avoidable blindness can be markedly reduced. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Eye-Health Education for Everyone
7 out of 10 Nigerians have limited health literacy. This is attributable to a number of misconceptions including widespread adult & youth illiteracy, propagation of myths, consumption of unverified health information among others. This low health literacy status predisposes a lot of persons to poorer health choices, poor uptake of healthcare services, poorer disease outcomes etc. This is invariably leads to poor health status and more specifically, needless visual impairments and avoidable blindness.
The doctor to patient ratio in Nigeria stands at 1:3500. Hence, there is an urgent need to take health education to the streets, schools, market places and town halls. The Eye-health Education for Everyone project is targeted at improving health literacy among my community members. Its focus is to promote correct eye-health knowledge among the populace. The project aims to reach 150 persons at a physical event. This would be complemented with a virtual campaign estimated to have a combined reach of over 1000 persons.
About the Millennium Fellow
Emmanuel Erhasogie Eguae is an Eye Health Advocate and Master of Ceremonies with over two years' experience working on social impact projects and initiatives covering eye health education and quality healthcare delivery to underserved communities in Benin City, Nigeria.
He is a final year undergraduate student of the department of Optometry, Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Benin, Nigeria. In a bid to reduce needless visual impairments and avoidable blindness, Emmanuel is championing eye health education. He uses health blogging as a tool in promoting eye health by sharing relevant and useful eye-related information on his social media channels.
Emmanuel believes that individuals' quality of life of can be enhanced by improving their quality of vision. He advocates regular eye examination and healthy lifestyles as measures to ensure optimum oculo-visual health. He is enthusiastic about exploring his passion in clinical optometry, public health and Universal Healthcare Coverage actualization in his community.
