Hannah advocates for educational equality and accessibility for young people through the organisation she founded, the One/Third Project. She is passionate about encouraging positive mental health action for underprivileged and underrepresented students, by drawing on her personal experiences of leaving school at the age of fourteen, to influence positive and beneficial change for future generations. She aims to tackle the concerning amount of young people leaving education due to mental health difficulties and/or a lack of support.
In the first 12 months of her project she has worked with over 900 students and young people and is collaborating with multiple organisations, in order to create opportunity and community for young people to grow, develop and balance their situation with wellbeing while being encouraged to pursue their goals through social action projects.
One event of particular note is the newest and biggest, the Lead the Way Youth Summit, which will launch in August 2023.
After gaining her Masters degree Rita returned to her home country of Nigeria and founded Beau Haven Farms, a social enterprise that empowers communities to address the interrelated problems of malnutrition and lack of economic opportunity with environmentally sustainable biofortified/nutritious farms. UNICEF estimates that at least one in two children under 5 years suffer from ‘hidden hunger,’ with deficiencies of vitamins and other essential nutrients in Nigeria.
Rita has been instrumental in empowering and upgrading the livelihoods of rural women and girls in her community through agriculture. Under her leadership, (‘‘UFORO IBAN UTO INWANG)’’ meaning #SHE’s Empowered through agriculture) was a local initiative, to empower and upgrade the livelihoods of rural women and girls in her community. The project has enabled 50,000 women especially widows to build their financial and entrepreneurial skills and provided them with the self-confidence they needed to start their own commercial cassava farms in Nigeria.
Through her entrepreneurial endeavours and her involvement in her community she was selected by United Nations Empower Women as a Global Champion.
Dr Eleanor Jones, Dr Helena O’Flynn, Dr Chloe Barr and Dr Helen Clarke are all PhD students involved in womb cancer research. In September 2020, they launched Peaches Womb Cancer Trust together, the UK’s first national charity dedicated to womb cancer. Peaches aims to improve the lives of those with and affected by womb cancer by: raising awareness so that all women know the symptoms; supporting patients through coffee mornings, webinars and online information; advocating for womb cancer on a national level including consulting on national guidelines and new drug appraisals; and promoting and funding research into womb cancer.
The Peaches team have set up and grown the charity as its founding Trustees. They have gradually brought in volunteers with relevant experience in HR, law and finance as the charity has expanded. The charity has grown exponentially and now has a turnover of over £40,000. In September 2022 it welcomed its first employee, a Fundraising and Operations Manager, who the Peaches Team line manage, and the team are looking to expand further with another employee later this year. Thanks to ever-increasing donations from the public, Peaches is continuing to grow. As it does, the support services offered will be increased and a national womb cancer awareness campaign is planned for later this year.
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