Country
Short Biography
The winner in Health and Education 2020 is educational leader and NGO founder & author Bernice Oyeleke from Nigeria.
Bernice Oyeleke is a passionate educational leader, NGO founder and author, promoting Deaf education in Nigeria.
Bernice is founder of the non-profit organisation, “Luminous Deaf Scholastic Initiative” (LUDESI) and National Treasurer of the Deaf Teachers Association of Nigeria (DTAN), as well as Chairwoman of the Planning Committee of National Quiz Competition for Deaf Students.
In 2020 Bernice released ‘LUMINOUS’, an autobiographic novel. In August of that year, Bernice was also recognised by the Society of Young Nigerians as Young Female Writer of the month and awarded Deaf Women Breaking Barriers by CODAH Enterprise. Bernice was born in 1989. She is an alumnus of the Department of Special Education, University of Ibadan, where she obtained her undergraduate and masters degrees – both times as the top graduating student. As a civil servant, Bernice has worked with the Federal Ministry of Education in Nigeria.
Today, she is also a columnist for the Inclusive News Network, publishing weekly interviews with people with disabilities.
With her organisation, LUDESI, Bernice aims to inspire deaf students to unfold their literary potential, and promotes major educational events such as the “National Literary Competition for Deaf”.
Through her extraordinary work, Bernice is changing the educational experience of deaf students across Nigeria – boosting their academic morale and opening doors that were previously shut to them.
Reason for winning
“She is just a talented writer, who is bursting with ideas to enlarge
the inclusion of deaf people. I think culture and furthermore the art of
writing is one of the best ways to enlarge inclusion.”
(Ninia LaGrande - Jury Member)