Our Team - Reboot Wellbeing and Empowerment Foundation

Meet R-WEF Team

The people behind the work, leaders, practitioners, and young changemakers building something that lasts.

JESSICA OHAKA

Founder and Executive Director

The person behind the vision

Jessica Ohaka is the Founder and Executive Director of Reboot Wellbeing and Empowerment Foundation, a pan-African nonprofit organisation dedicated to strengthening mental wellbeing, expanding pathways to empowerment and meaningful work, and building thriving communities and ecosystems for young Africans across the continent.
Raised in Nigeria, Jessica grew up in a society where the pressure on young people to succeed academically was immense yet the inner resources, professional guidance, and mental health support needed to sustain that success were rarely available, and rarely spoken about. She watched her peers, and eventually herself, navigate the transition from education to adulthood without the tools to do it well. That experience planted a seed that would take years to fully grow but it never stopped growing. Jessica began her career in youth development at sixteen as a volunteer in programme management, drawn by a conviction that young people deserved environments built intentionally around their growth. That early commitment laid the foundation for eight years of professional experience spanning grassroots programming, pan-West African initiatives, and global organisational systems. As Programme Manager for MindYourself at Dream Sports Africa, she contributed to a mental health and wellbeing programme that reached over 20,000 young people across West Africa, an experience that deepened her understanding of what it takes to build systems that create lasting change, not just temporary exposure to it.

It was through that work and through years of watching the same pattern repeat itself across Africa that the vision for R-WEF took shape. Young Africans were graduating in record numbers. They were ambitious, capable, and hungry for opportunity. Yet they were entering the world of work without professional identity, without career clarity, and without the psychological foundation to sustain the journey ahead. Mental health conversations were happening in one room. Career development was happening in another. Nobody was holding both realities at once. Jessica decided that was the organisation she needed to build. Reboot Wellbeing and Empowerment Foundation was conceived in 2025 and formally registered as a nonprofit with the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria in January 2026. Built on three interconnected pillars — Mental Wellbeing Systems, Pathways to Empowerment and Meaningful Work, and Thriving Communities and Ecosystems, R-WEF operates from the belief that sustainable change for young Africans must address the whole person. Not just their skills. Not just their mental health. Both, together, within communities strong enough to hold them.

R-WEF’s inaugural programme, Growth Beyond Grades, launched in its first cohort in 2026 and drew 140 applications from 56 universities across 8 countries. Thirty participants were selected. Twenty-seven graduated. Three were hired directly into R-WEF as paid interns. That outcome was not incidental. It was the design. Jessica is a Chartered Economist, Chartered Accountant in view, Aspire Leaders Programme alumna, Secretary of the Advisory Board of Africa Suicide Prevention Association, and an official representative of the International Association for Suicide Prevention. She is also the author of 24 Before Forever. Through her work, she advances the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 3, 4, 5, 8, and 17. She founded R-WEF because she believes that the most powerful thing an organisation can give a young African is not a certificate. It is an opportunity backed by systems designed to make more opportunities possible.

Read More

Board of Trustees

Our board of Trustees brings together visionary leaders who guide R-WEF’s mission, ensuring we remain innovative, accountable, and steadfast in empowering and serving young people across the African continent.

Nkemjika Mac-Anthony

Chief Finance Officer

Peter Agbontaen

Board Secretary

Patience Asher

Treasurer

Core Team

TIMILEYIN ABE

Programmes Coordinator

MARILYN OKON

Human Resource Lead

MARY IROHA

Communications and Content LEAD

SHEDRACH ODAFE

IT LEAD

JOY OBIANIKA

Programs and Community Associate

ADEMIDARA ADEEKO

Communications and Social Media Associate

EMMANUELLA CHIEMEKE

Digital Learning and Systems Associate

Youth Advisory Board

The Youth Advisory Board brings together young leaders whose lived experiences, ideas, and perspectives help shape R-WEF’s programmes, strengthen accountability, and ensure our work remains relevant to the young Africans we serve.