Mary Dinah: Difference between revisions

 

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{{Infobox person

{{Infobox person

| name = Mary Dinah

| name = Mary Dinah

Mary Dinah is a Hotelier, Social Entrepreneur, Humanitarian and Human rights activist.^[1] She is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Mary Dinah Foundation, an international non-profit organization that provides emergency food relief and nutritional supplements to refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) across West and Central Africa.^[2][3] She is also the Founder and Managing Director of M.A.D Hospitality, a London-based hospitality consulting firm.^[4]

Early life[edit]

Mary was born in Nigeria. She grew up in Lagos and Paris,^[1] before moving to England at the age of 14.^[5] She received her early education from the British School of Paris and St Saviour’s Primary School, Ikoyi, Lagos.^[5] During her high school years in Notting Hill, London, she was spotted by a modeling agency and modeled in fashion and beauty. ^[6]

Education[edit]

Mary holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Nottingham.^[7] She earned her MSc in International Hotel Management from the University of Surrey with Distinction.^[8] Subsequently, she obtained a Master’s Degree in Global Business with Distinction from the University of Oxford Saïd Business School and studied Entrepreneurship at Harvard University.^[5]

Mary is a United Nations Fellow and has acquired a postgraduate degree from the United Nations Institute of Training and Research (UNITAR) in Geneva, Switzerland.^[6] In 2018, she studied Advanced Leadership and Public Policy at Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.^[9]

Mary is a hotelier who has worked with various hotel chains including Hilton, Marriott, Four Seasons, Le Meridien, Sheraton and Starwood hotels.^[7][4]

Mary founded M.A.D Hospitality in 2008, a London-based hospitality consulting firm which provides boutique hotel management and service excellence training. The company has since expanded and diversified into corporate hotel bookings, serving clients including Fortune 500 companies.^[10][11] She also became the new face of Yoko, a London-based luxury fashion jeweler in Knightsbridge.^[12]

Humanitarian work[edit]

Mary is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Mary Dinah Foundation, an international non-profit organization which is committed to addressing food security and malnutrition across West and Central Africa,^[13] aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger. Through its Zero Hunger Program, the Foundation provides emergency food relief and nutritional supplements to vulnerable persons, including refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in crisis zones and regions affected by war and terrorism.^[13] To date, the Foundation has distributed over 42 million meals and nutritional supplements, primarily targeting pregnant and lactating women and infants under 2 years of age as beneficiaries.^[14] In addition to addressing food insecurity and maternal health, the Foundation implements activities aimed at improving access to healthcare, raising awareness about gender-based violence, providing education on water and sanitation hygiene, and promoting best practices for infant and child feeding. Mary Dinah Foundation started in 2006 in East London, with a mission to assist in the rehabilitation of women in need of shelter and struggling with various addictions. Subsequently, the Foundation expanded its operations to Nigeria, where it started providing meals to girls in public schools in Lagos.

In 2014, Mary established Job-Link, Nigeria’s first Job Centre, which connected over 10,000 youths to work and created an employability training program, training 3,000 people on employability skills, and administering over 2,000 CV clinics. Through her work with Job-Link, she gained insight into the broader challenges that hinder career progress, particularly for young women. In response, she established a career counseling service for women known as the Power of Women Association (P.O.W.A.) in collaboration with the State Ministry of Women’s Affairs. P.O.W.A. works to support victims of sexual harassment and gathers data to lobby the Nigerian Senate to pass appropriate bills into law which protect women.^[15][16]

In 2023, the Mary Dinah Scholarship for Refugees was launched in Cameroon enabling refugees to pursue higher education at universities.^[17]

Honors and Awards[edit]

Mary is a United Nations Fellow. She has been a recipient of international awards including the British Council Social Impact Award;^[18] British High Commission Future Leaders Award; Vice Chancellors Award at University of Surrey; Lagos State Governor’s…