Mariam Oyiza Aliyu

Mariam Oyiza Aliyu is the Founder and Executive Director of Learning Through Skills Acquisition Initiative (LETSAI), a youth-led, disability-inclusive nonprofit working with women, girls, young people and communities. Her experience brings together public health, gender-based violence prevention and response, mental health and psychosocial support, livelihoods, disability inclusion and peacebuilding.

Education and professional background

Mariam holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Radiography from the University of Maiduguri and a Master’s degree in International Public Health from Liverpool John Moores University. Her public-health training informs her work on the links between health, protection, access to services and community development.

Establishing LETSAI

Mariam established LETSAI in 2015 to support communities affected by violence, displacement and exclusion. The organisation’s work combines support for survivors of gender-based violence with practical skills, economic participation, disability rights and community peacebuilding.

Under her leadership, LETSAI has developed programme partnerships with organisations including UNICEF, Christoffel-Blindenmission (CBM), UN Women, the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), the Global Center on Cooperative Security, Care Fronting Nigeria and the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR). These collaborations relate to different projects and periods.

Multisectoral programme leadership

Mariam has led multidisciplinary teams in programme design, implementation, monitoring and donor reporting. Her responsibilities connect strategy, field operations, staff development, partnerships and organisational accountability.

Her programme experience includes:

• Mental health and psychosocial support, including trauma-healing activities for people affected by violence and displacement.
• Gender-based violence prevention and response, child rights, survivor support and community referral pathways.
• Disability inclusion, community-based inclusive development, accessibility and disability-law implementation.
• Vocational skills, community savings and livelihood support for women, young people and persons with disabilities.
• Community cohesion, peacebuilding, rights awareness and women’s participation.
• Public health, emergency preparedness and humanitarian response.

International experience

Mariam’s professional engagement extends across Africa, Europe and Asia. Her international experience complements her leadership of LETSAI’s programmes in Nigeria and her work with civil-society networks, public institutions and development partners.

Across these areas, her focus is on programmes that respond to community priorities and connect protection, wellbeing and economic participation. Her training, facilitation experience, published contributions and recognitions are presented below.