Leeds alumni honoured by the British Council Alumni Awards for work in her community

We are delighted to announce School of Politics and International Studies alumnus Adanna Enwezor as a British Council Award Finalist.

The British Council Alumni Awards recognise leaders in their fields who have used their experience of studying at a UK university to make a positive contribution to their communities, industries and countries.

This year the British Council received over 1,700 applications from around the world. The University of Leeds is proud to have 6 finalists and 1 winner across 5 different faculties.

The Faculty of Social Sciences is represented by two alumni including Adanna Enwezor who studied MA Global Development and Africa in 2011 and is now a British Council Alumni Award Finalist in the Culture, Creativity and Sport category in Nigeria.

Pro Dean International, Faculty of Social Sciences, Dr Adam Tyson said,

I am so impressed with Adanna’s achievements after graduating from Leeds, especially the principled way in which she advocates for substantive change in Africa and globally. Adanna’s nomination for a British Council Alumni Award demonstrates that education can inspire meaningful action, and I expect that the best is yet to come.

We asked Adanna to tell us about the work that led to this award

I returned to Nigeria after my masters and immediately joined a professional women's network where I emerged as an executive member and the Country representative for the under 35's within the organisation.

 There, I initiated ideas on health awareness and skills acquisition that were executed through my leadership to hundreds of people in local communities. My impact was recognised, and I was given three awards for outstanding leadership.

In 2015 after a bad experience using hair relaxers, I was inspired to start my NGO where I put my research skills learnt while at Leeds to work.

Through my studies I found that the black hair industry was linked to illnesses such as cancer, fibroids etc. This inspired me to launch my first NGO project called the' African Hair Summit' in June 2016, a platform created to sensitise people about the toxic chemicals in hair and beauty products, promote the beauty in Afro hair culture and encourage the local manufacture of healthy beauty products.

This project has trained over 10,000 women/young girls in hairstyling and product formulation across various African countries, creating hundreds of businesses, promoting healthy hair and Afro Culture to over 30 million Africans at physical events, through television/radio coverage and via our social media platforms with over 720.000 followers with posts re-posted since 2016 gaining millions of views.

Adanna said of the award,

This means so much to me and for my industry. This nomination has come as a strong reminder to keep working hard and to increase the impact that we started making in 2016. I am super thankful for the role the University of Leeds has played in my journey and I cannot wait to take the conversation further.

Inspired by Adanna’s journey?

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