CEO’s Message

Heartland Alliance LTD/GTE is a global leader in the protection of the rights of some of the world’s most marginalized, stigmatized, and vulnerable communities particularly in Nigeria. Grounded in rich heritage of rights-based programming and with the wealth and experience of a diversified board of directors from research to media and financial management as well as law enforcement and security, we are well established to push the frontiers of bringing a better and safer world to the Nigerian people in many different ways. We have been involved in important national surveys like the Integrated biological and behavioral surveillance survey (IBBSS) since 2017 to date. We have participated in key populations size estimation, supported the prisons survey, and contributed to many technical working groups and national plans. Policy advocacy and promotion of access to life saving interventions for those in need.

Since 2009 when we began work in Nigeria in partnership with Heartland Alliance International (HAI), we provide human rights-based high-quality comprehensive HIV prevention, care, and treatment services to people left behind in the response. We protect the rights and dignity of those excluded by gender disparities and inequities. This large scale effort has grown to become one of the largest USAID-funded HIV treatment programs that caters for the needs of the key population (KP) including LGBTQI+ persons, sex workers, people in correctional facilities and people who use drugs.

In addition to the above, our programming in Nigeria by focus on the sexual and reproductive healthcare needs of young women and girls, particularly those who are extremely marginalized and hard to reach. The female drug users, transgender women, and young key populations are critical to the work we do.

In partnership with HAI, we organize trainings for service providers to work with survivors, women and children who have been trafficked by Boko Haram and other militarized groups in Northeast Nigeria and offer technical assistance for local community-based organizations. This we have done by providing technical and institutional capacity building in leadership, management, financial, monitoring and evaluation skills to these organizations. We invest in strengthening community structures for sustainable development in line with the sustainable development goals (SDG). Some of these local organizations have achieved extraordinary levels of sustainability and organizational growth over the last 11 years and have impacted on the lives of the vulnerable persons.

Going forward, by adopting the values of fairness and transparency and human rights in our management, we will continue to take appropriate action, provide needs-based services, as well as build stronger relationships that will establish us as a global leader in the provision of mental health and psychosocial support, access to justice for victims of abuse and trafficking, protect human rights and promote gender equity while providing stigma free healthcare.

I would like to sincerely ask for your continued support and trust to achieve our goal of securing the rights of marginalized communities.

CEO,

Bartholomew Ochonye.