Country of Residence
Nigeria
Age
18
Project title
HealthBridge Youth
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
HealthBridge Youth is a youth-led public health initiative that equips students and underserved young people with trustworthy, understandable health information and connects them with appropriate health services through peer education, community outreach and accessible digital resources.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
https://ng.linkedin.com/in/olaosebikan-olamiposi-553b0a283
Project Category
My project is a brand new / emerging idea
Project Stage
Idea (We’re hoping to get started in the future)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
As I began studying Medicine and Surgery, I became more conscious of the gap between having health information available and actually understanding what to do with it. Young people constantly encounter health advice through friends, social media and the internet, but reliability is difficult to judge. I started thinking about how different things could be if young people did not have to wait until they were sick or frightened before receiving understandable, trustworthy guidance. My “Aha!” moment was realizing that medical students and other trained young volunteers could help bridge this gap. We are close enough in age to communicate naturally with young people, while also being connected to health professionals and evidence-based knowledge. Instead of creating another health-information page, I want to build a youth-led network that takes reliable information into the spaces young people already use and helps them know when and where to seek professional care.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Many young Nigerians receive important health information from social media, friends and informal sources where misinformation can spread quickly. Even when accurate information exists, it may be technical, inaccessible or disconnected from services young people can actually use. This can leave students confused about prevention, symptoms, mental wellbeing, sexual and reproductive health, hygiene and when professional medical attention is necessary. This matters to me because studying medicine continually shows me how valuable prevention and early action can be. Yet medical knowledge has little community value if the people who need it cannot understand or access it. HealthBridge Youth will address the gap between health knowledge and everyday action, beginning with young people in university and surrounding communities and developing a model that can eventually be adapted elsewhere.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
HealthBridge Youth will create a youth-to-youth pathway for reliable health information and appropriate referrals. The initiative will recruit and train medical and health-science students as HealthBridge Peer Champions. With guidance from qualified health professionals, champions will translate evidence-based information into short, understandable resources and conversations for other young people. The project will combine three approaches. First, peer-led sessions in schools, campuses and communities will address practical health topics identified by young people themselves. Second, simple digital resources distributed through platforms young people already use will counter misinformation with concise, verified information. Third, a referral directory will help participants identify appropriate existing clinics, services and professional support when information alone is not enough. Rather than attempting to diagnose or treat people, HealthBridge Youth will focus on health literacy, prevention and navigation. Feedback forms and short pre/post-session questions will help us understand whether participants gained useful knowledge and whether our approach needs improvement. The first pilot will be deliberately small so that we can test the model, learn from participants and improve it before expanding.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
HealthBridge Youth is currently at the idea stage, so I do not want to claim impact that has not happened yet. The first goal will be to demonstrate measurable impact through a small pilot. During the initial three months, I aim to recruit a core group of peer champions and reach at least 100 young people through targeted health-literacy sessions and digital resources. We will measure changes in understanding using brief anonymous pre- and post-session questions, collect participant feedback and track how many people use the referral information provided. Impact will mean more than attendance. I want participants to become better able to distinguish trustworthy health information from misinformation, understand practical preventive actions and know when and where to seek qualified help. If the pilot shows improvement in these measures, we can refine the model and gradually expand through additional student volunteers and community partners.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
HealthBridge Youth is not based on the assumption that Nigeria lacks health information. The innovation is in closing the “last mile” between reliable information and young people's everyday decisions. Many health campaigns are delivered to young people by institutions. HealthBridge Youth instead makes young people active participants in delivering and shaping the intervention. Medical and health-science students become trained translators between professional health knowledge and their peers, while participants help identify the questions and misinformation most relevant to them. The model also combines health education with navigation. A young person who learns that something requires professional attention should not simply be told to “see a doctor”; the project will help them identify appropriate existing services. It is intentionally low-cost and does not depend on developing an expensive app. It uses peer networks, existing digital platforms, reusable educational materials and partnerships with existing health services. This makes it practical to pilot locally and potentially adaptable by student groups in other communities.
How many people are on your team?
1
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
I am currently the project's founder and sole team member while it remains at the idea stage. My next priority is to build a small multidisciplinary team of medical and health-science students, with guidance from qualified health professionals. I want leadership to become shared as the project develops, with peer champions taking responsibility for outreach, content, partnerships and impact measurement rather than having every decision depend on me.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Over the next three months, I will move HealthBridge Youth from an idea to a tested pilot. First, I will speak with students and young people to identify their most urgent health-information needs. I will then recruit an initial group of peer champions and seek guidance from health professionals to establish standards for accurate, responsible communication. Next, we will develop a small set of evidence-based resources and a simple referral directory, then conduct our first pilot sessions with approximately 100 young people. We will collect anonymous feedback and pre/post-session responses to evaluate what works and revise the model. After the pilot, the next year will focus on improving the training system, building partnerships with student associations, schools, community organisations and existing health services, recruiting additional champions and expanding carefully to new communities. Growth will be based on demonstrated impact rather than reach alone.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
Because HealthBridge Youth is new, I have not yet recruited participants or claimed a community reach. My approach will be to make young people co-creators rather than passive recipients. I will begin by inviting medical and health-science students who care about prevention and community service to become peer champions. Each champion will help identify health questions young people around them are actually asking and participate in designing relevant outreach. To engage the wider community, we will work through student associations, schools, youth groups and existing community networks. Sessions will encourage participants to ask questions, suggest future topics and share verified resources with their peers. As the initiative grows, experienced champions will help train newer volunteers. This creates a multiplier effect: instead of one founder trying to educate everyone, young people gain the tools to activate other young people. I want HealthBridge Youth ultimately to become a network in which leadership and reliable health knowledge spread together.
