In her early years, as a student nurse at an eye hospital in Maiduguri, Aishatu Margima encountered a moment that revealed the depth of her humanity. A woman scheduled for a critical eye procedure was forced to return home because she could not raise the required deposit.
This was no strange occurrence for Margima—Nigerian hospitals routinely deny impoverished patients healthcare. Yet she was moved with sympathy for this woman who was on the brink of permanent blindness.
Margima ran after her and persuaded her to return. She recalls telling the surgeon, “Please let us buy the drugs and the operation materials, and you will operate free of charge.” The doctor acquiesced, “and that woman went with her two eyes,” Margima remarks with pride.
Many such interventions followed, laying the foundation of what would later become one of northern Nigeria’s foremost grassroots organisations committed to the vulnerable.
Using her platform, Margima has turned a wealth of experience in frontline healthcare into a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of women and youths, including the disabled community, in Nigeria’s conflict-ridden regions.
Nurtured with empathy
Born and raised in Lassa, Borno State, Margima was guided by a moral compass of compassion. Her parents frequently doled out grains, clothing and soap to needy families.
After secondary school she trained as a midwife at the Maiduguri School of Midwifery and then proceeded to the School of Nursing, where she was certified as a nurse.
At a time when specialised nurses were few and far between in northern Nigeria, Margima branched out into ophthalmology.
But she yearned for more. Acquiring an advanced diploma in Public Administration, she went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree in the same field, eventually crowning her feat with a master’s degree in Health Planning and Management.
In April 2009, she retired as the Director of Administration and Supplies at the Borno State Hospital Management Board, where she had supervised thirty-three hospitals. By then, her reputation had been well known.
Founding WYEAHI
Although several of the people she worked closely with had proposed the idea, Margima wouldn’t consider the idea of an NGO until November 2011.
Compelled by the worsening poverty and gender and health inequities she saw around her, she founded the Women and Youth Empowerment for Advancement and Health Initiative (WYEAHI). The organisation registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission in 2012 and later obtained a DUNS number and an EU identification code as markers of its growing credibility.
From the beginning, WYEAHI set out to build an equitable society across Adamawa and Borno states, not just for women and youth but also including those with disabilities.
Since its social-development campaigns came on the heels of the insurgency in 2013, WYEAHI promptly became a bastion of support for many internally displaced women and youth.
Empowering Nigeria’s conflict victims
WYEAHI offered training in customer-friendly practices, basic bookkeeping, and local nutrition as well as a savings-and-loans methodology that helped small groups build micro-capital in places where banks did not exist.
Together with her team, Margima formed groups of about twenty women who met weekly to contribute money, offer loans and create a sense of community amidst the ravaging insecurity.
One cluster, known informally as Kawan Jagajaga, credits WYEAHI’s interventions with transforming their lives.
In 2015, WYEAHI sought to help vulnerable women in affected Borno communities rebuild their lives, providing essential kits from sewing machines to groundnut-oil processors.
Alongside this were health outreaches to households affected by HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, educating them on treatment adherence, prevention and stigma reduction. To deepen buy-in and foster local ownership, Margima and her team worked with faith leaders and community associations.
Over the years, WYEAHI partnered with development and humanitarian agencies, including Oxfam Novib, the Victims Support Fund and the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). These alliances have expanded its development projects across much of the north. For example, an Oxfam-supported project gave 225 women seed grants to set up petty businesses.
The Victims Support Fund partnership targeted over 4,000 women in several Adamawa communities affected by insurgency attacks.
With MCC, WYEAHI trained more than 1,500 internally displaced persons and vulnerable women in Girei LGA of Adamawa State between 2017 and 2024, covering trauma healing, peacebuilding, savings-and-loan groups and small-enterprise training.
Scaling up to confront SGBV
Among WYEAHI’s widespread impacts is its intervention in Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV).
The insurgency brought an attendant rise in gender-based violence in Northeast Nigeria. According to the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, one in three Nigerian women experience physical violence by age 15.
For years, Margima received reports of rape, domestic violence and harmful practices but lacked the structure to address them comprehensively.
Following the professional guidance of MCC Global’s Food Security and Livelihood Program Lead, Michael Adeola, Margima formally integrated SGBV response into the WYEAHI’s programme structure.
The organisation documented rape cases, linking survivors to psychosocial support. It further engaged communities on preventing rape—discussions that were considered taboo.
Margima often speaks frankly about the magnitude of the challenge. Gender-based violence is chronically underreported in Nigeria, and—in conflict-prone communities—displaced women are at even greater risk. “The demand is high,” she says, adding that the organisation’s response capacity is cramped by funding constraints.
Margima has sometimes confronted masculine resistance for prioritising women, although she says this has softened over the years.
More women in Borno, she notes, are rising into leadership positions and influencing governance in more ways than were possible a decade ago.
As humanitarian needs continue to rise across Nigeria’s conflict zones, Aishatu Margima remains deeply connected to the people she serves, listening to their fears, responding to their needs and offering the care she first showed that woman in the eye clinic many years ago.
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