Ijeoma Nmeregini popularly known as Aijay Desmond is a Nigerian-born award-winning singer, a song writer, and a licensed Medical Laboratory Scientist with over a decade of experience in Laboratory Medicine. Ijeoma runs a non-profit in Nigeria known as Be-In-Health Foundation (www.bihefoundation.org) which provides free healthcare services and medication for people living in low-income neighbourhoods and rural communities with great focus on Non-Communicable (Chronic) Diseases (NCDs).
The organisation’s interventions also include advocacy/raising awareness (including self-care educator programs), screening and providing support systems by way of patient referrals to local general hospitals. In addition, Be-In-Health Foundation provides water and sanitation facilities to rural communities that need them.
As the Executive Director of Be-In-Health Foundation, Ijeoma is responsible for designing new high-impact partnerships, managing relationships with important external stakeholders, and serving as an internal and external ambassador of the initiative.
Ijeoma was formerly the Head of the Laboratory Services Department of the Nigerian Navy Sickbay in Lagos and the Operations Manager Lifeblood Donor Foundation, Nigeria.
She is a Hive Alumna, a Young African Leadership Institute (YALI) RLC Alumna and in 2017, she became one of the 100 young Nigerians selected for the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders where she trained in Civic Leadership at Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA.
Ijeoma has several certification (trainings) in the healthcare space from different universities in the United States including a certificate in Grant Writing from Appalachian State University, North Carolina, USA.
She is a member of the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), a student member of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH), United Kingdom and an Associate of the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria. She is a writer and an educator on health –related matters.
In the future, Ijeoma plans to operate a chain of free clinics across Nigeria and other parts of Africa.
