Adepeju holds a degree in Law from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and a certificate in Global Change Leadership from the Coady International Institute in Canada. She also participated in the 2013 Global Change Leaders programme.
In 2011, Adepeju lost her friend due to pregnancy/childbirth-related complications. This, and the fact that she saw women giving birth on bare floors, birth attendants severing umbilical cord with rusty blades or broken glass, jolted her into action.
The same year, she founded the Brown Button Foundation, a nonprofit organization that trains birth attendants in rural villages in Nigeria. The company has trained more than 8,000 birth attendants across the country who have also gone on to train others.
Impressive work she’s doing, but she didn’t rest on her oars. After meeting a baby infected with tetanus as a result of a rusty blade being used, Adepeju and her team decided to take action and solve this problem.
In 2013, she launched Mother’s Delivery Kit, a social enterprise that provides affordable sterile supplies for childbirth. So far, over 50,000 kits have been delivered.
In 2014 she was selected to take part in the prestigious 2014 Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders. In 2015, she was recognised as a “young innovator” at the World Innovation Summit for Health and in the same year, she was was one of five emerging entrepreneurs invited to pitch her idea at a White House event showcasing the impact of U.S. government initiatives and was honoured at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Washington DC where she met the former President of the United States of America, Barack Obama.
It all didn’t come easy though. According to Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI)
When she first shared her delivery kit idea with a colleague, she was warned not to give up her prestigious job as a lawyer. But after two months, Jaiyeoba became restless and approached someone else: her pediatrician brother.
With savings from her legal work and expert advice from her sibling, Jaiyeoba created 200 sample kits.
She was enlisted among the 100 Most Inspiring Women in Nigeria in 2017.
We indeed salute Adepeju who took up the initiative to do what ordinarily anyone will deem to be the government’s duty.
Keep Winning Super Woman.
You inspire us.
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