Our Man Crush this Monday is Victor Ugo
With an unrelenting passion for behavioral and public health, Victor Ugo is the founder of Nigeria's leading mental health NGO, Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (MANI).
Our MCM, Founder of MANI, Victor Ugo [The Guardian Nigeria]
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![Tourist jumps off a cliff [Instagram/@canarias1500kmdecosta]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'100'%20height%3D'100'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Tourist jumps off a cliff [Instagram/@canarias1500kmdecosta]")
Victor Ugo is a medical doctor with over 2 years’ experience in the field of Health Advocacy, with special focus on Mental Health.
The third child in a family of six, Victor graduated from Igbinedion University, Okada in 2014 with a degree in Medicine.
After being diagnosed with Depression in 2014, he decided to start up MANI to raise awareness and deal with the the stigma surrounding mental illness in Nigeria. He describes MANI as a non-governmental, nonprofit organisation working to improve the dire state of mental health advocacy and care in Nigeria and Africa.
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![Our MCM, Founder of MANI, Victor Ugo [Bella Naija]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'400'%20height%3D'600'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Our MCM, Founder of MANI, Victor Ugo [Bella Naija]")
Our MCM, Founder of MANI, Victor Ugo [Bella Naija]
Bella Naija
Campaigns for MANI officially started in 2015 and so far, it has grown to be the leading Youth Mental Health Network in Nigeria, with 6 chapters and over 500 members. On its stable suicide hotline managed by trained counsellors, MANI has been able to intervene in over 2000 calls and messages as well as from random tags on social media. The Initiative itself has won international awards and partnerships including the 2017 Nelson Mandela-Graça Michel Innovation Awards in mental health.
Victor is committed to several minority projects in mental health and disability as well as the #Vision2030 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which he targets with innovative projects like Social Aid For Development (SocialAid4Dev); an initiative that hopes to drive collaboration for social projects among young Africans in Africa and Diaspora.
![Our MCM, Founder of MANI, Victor Ugo [The Guardian Nigeria]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'790'%20height%3D'1185'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Our MCM, Founder of MANI, Victor Ugo [The Guardian Nigeria]")
Our MCM, Founder of MANI, Victor Ugo [The Guardian Nigeria]
The Guardian Nigeria
He has been chosen as one of the 30 under 30 creatives in Africa by the C. Hub Magazine, been nominated for The Future Awards Africa prize for Advocacy and been selected as one of the Orange Active Citizens of the year by Orange Insider TV in collaboration with The Insider.
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Currently, he is a Global Goodwill Ambassador and a Country Executive at Global Mental Health Peer Network.
His efforts in Mental Health care and awareness from the African perspective have not gone unnoticed and that is why he is our #MCM today!
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