MAY 31, 2026 · 4 MIN READ
One Year of Making Migraine Visible Across Africa
Migraine Outreach — May 31, 2025 to May 31, 2026
International models of patient advocacy existed, organisations that had spent decades building patient infrastructure, community, and policy influence in Europe and the Americas. What did not exist was any of that in Africa. No patient organisation. No documented patient voice. No African representation within the global migraine advocacy movement.
Many people asked me a question in those early days: what is in it for you?
Honestly, I did not have the best answer. What I had was something simpler, a clear picture of a problem no one was solving. Hundreds of millions of people across Sub-Saharan Africa living with one of the most disabling conditions in the world, with no organisation speaking for them, no community to turn to, and no voice at any of the tables where decisions about their health were being made. And a deep belief that it did not have to be this way.
So we decided to fill it. And we built from the ground up.
What One Year Looks Like
The numbers tell part of the story.
But behind every number is a human being whose life has been touched by this work. And their words tell the rest.
"I was glad someone could relate to literally everything I was facing, and that I am not as difficult as people tagged me to be."
"Suffered is the word. But nobody wants to hear you say it. I am so excited to be here."
"I hope I have not tilted my patients into migraine chronicity based on my previous practice."
These are not testimonials crafted for a report. They are what people said when they finally found a space that saw them. The first is from a patient who spent years being dismissed. The second from someone who had carried unspoken pain for longer than she should have had to. The third from a healthcare professional who sat in one of our training sessions and confronted something uncomfortable about her own practice.
Three voices. Three different kinds of change.
What This Year Taught Us
A year of building Migraine Outreach has confirmed what we suspected and revealed what we did not expect.
We knew the clinical gap was significant, that migraine was underdiagnosed, undertreated, and misunderstood across Sub-Saharan Africa. What we did not fully anticipate was the depth of the cultural layer underneath that gap. The ash and black soap applied to scalps. The prophetic medicine and herbal remedies tried before anyone thought to mention a neurologist. The years of being told it was spiritual, stress-related, or self-inflicted.
Culture does not just delay care. It shapes the entire landscape in which care is or is not sought.
We also learned that patient advocacy is not just about patients. The healthcare professional who reflected on her own practice after one of our training sessions, that reflection is advocacy too. Changing how a clinician sees migraine changes how an unknown number of future patients will be treated. The ripple goes further than we can measure.
“Culture does not just delay care. It shapes the entire landscape in which care is or is not sought.”
Olarinde Akinwumi
A Note of Gratitude
None of this happened alone. To the partners who believed before there was much to show. To the community members who shared stories they had never told anyone. To the healthcare professionals who showed up and left different. To everyone who shared a post, wore their shades, or simply said keep going — THANK YOU.
The work that began one year ago is not finished. It has barely started and it is growing. No one in Africa should have to suffer from migraine in silence.
The work continues.
Written by
Olarinde Akinwumi
Founder & Executive Director, Migraine Outreach