ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2023
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. 44,000+ student leaders from 3,300+ campuses across 170+ nations applied to join the Class of 2023. 260+ campuses worldwide (just 9%) in 38 countries were selected to host 4,000+ Millennium Fellows for the Class of 2023.
UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT OLALEKAN ATA, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2023.
University of Ibadan University College Hospital | Ibadan, Nigeria | Advancing SDG 3 & UNAI 6
Millennium Fellowship Project: The Red Ribbon Project
The Red Ribbon represents support for HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns, Nigeria has the largest HIV epidemic in West and Central Africa with close to 2 million people infected and more than 50000 deaths annually, almost half of these infected people are between the adolences to young adult stage. The Red Ribbon project aims to address the fact that HIV/AIDS Transmission is not only via sexual intercourse, put to bed falsa myths that surround the disease and thereby lead to the stigmatization of affected people and encourage people to know their HIV/AIDS status and receive appropriate treatment when needed. The burden of HIV/AIDS is still very high in this region of the world, therefore it is our passionate intent through this project to actively improve the lives of all those who are living with the disease and in doing so also curb its spread our locality
The major target populations for this projects are the youths and adolescents as this entails categories of young people who are more prone to living sedentary lifestyles, and this at a greater risk of contracting the infection.
In August, a committee of like-minded individuals would be created so as to put ideas together and work towards the success of this project. A social media account would also be created where informations concerning facts and myths about HIV infection would be sent out on a weekly basis, this will enable us to reach more people through the internet.
Between October and November, different youths and Adolescents would be interviewed, where they would be asked to share their knowledge about the modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS and how often they check their HIV/AIDS status, this will help us to know how much knowledge majority of the population have about the disease.
On World's AIDS day which is Dec 1st, an awareness outreach would be conducted where we will go to two secondary schools to enlighten the senior students about the sex Education, modes of transmission of HIV AIDS, the need for them to know their HIV status and also Educate them on the risk associated with stigmatization of people living with HIV infection Free HIV tests would be conducted during the outreach. Anyone testing positive to the test would be referred to HIV treatment centers in Ibadan for free Antiretroviral therapy while adequate monitoring of these people would be ensured.
About the Millennium Fellow
Ata Olalekan Vincent is a fifth-year dental student in the University of Ibadan. He is dedicated to helping underserved communities and having a positive impact on people. He actively promotes good oral health through his activities in the Committee for Dental Education and Health of the Unibadan Association of Dental Students. Through his project, he intends to educate more people about the value of good oral hygiene and to encourage them to seek out dental care.
Olalekan is also a budding researcher with interest in dental public health and oncology.