Mary Umble Wuya

Category: Activists

Mary is the coordinator of a grassroots non-governmental organization in Jos, Plateau State Nigeria. Mary's NGO focuses on educating rural women on issues of clean water, sanitation and hygiene, reproductive health and micro-financing. She is committed to empowering women to promote healthy, equitable communities.

As the founder of the organization, Organized Centre for Empowerment and Advocacy in Nigeria (OCEAN), Mary has helped to establish 52 women groups in rural communities. These women are organized into groups to encourage and teach each other skills. Her groups also do advocacy work for single women to help boost their morale and income base. Mary also leads HIV/AIDS leadership training sessions and teaches life skills for women and adolescent girls.

"We try as much as possible to let out women groups contribute in all our activities and projects, so they can sustain the projects when we have disengaged ourselves. For instance, we carried out a project with UN-Habitat on Rapid Gender Assessment as it affects water supply in urban cities....We mobilized women groups and advocated for clean environment through good hygiene and sanitation, since there is an unavoidable link between water, hygiene and sanitation. As a back drop of our advocacy efforts, these women have now formed volunteers hygiene promotion clubs in order to sustain the campaign within their communities."