HEAN (Health Empowerment and Awareness Network) is a not-for profit and Non-Governmental Organization which had its origination and first registration in Ehime-Mbano, Nigeria, December 2008. In 2012 it was registered in Finland with the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland, and the organization’s head office is now located in Helsinki.
It started as an initiative of Mrs J.S Mbadiugha, a retired health care professional, a mother of six and a sickle-cell anaemia patient who have lived to her 70th birthday. She had lost one of her children at a young age due to inadequacies in the developing countries healthcare systems, poor medical interventions, orientations and lack of general awareness.
She had personally suffered the immeasurable pains and crisis of sickle-cell anaemia and has miraculously survived to her old age against the presumptions of science and medicine. ( In 1994, in the US, the average life expectancy of persons with this condition was estimated to be 42 years in males and 48 years in females*). It is in this light that she has shown her dedication, interest and concern on selfless and humanitarian services to the society to help abate the scourges of unfortunate life circumstances resulting from poverty, gender discrimination, lack of education and awareness, poor sanitation and healthcare management, developmental and environmental sustainability issues, etc. In this bid she has been a helper, promoter, facilitator, inspiration and a living testimony to as many as those surrounded by all kinds of anomalies of life through the foundation of HEAN.
Currently, our organization is made up of five executive board members who are professionals in the aforementioned areas of concern. The board is headed by a Chairman and Executive Director, Joseph Mbadiugha. The organization also has several partners, an advisory board committee, 12 permanent staff, and employing over 20 fixed-term field workers depending on the demand for labour at a given time.
