Nuru Nigeria’s Amy Gaman Inspires at TEDxYola with Powerful Talk on Resilience and Hope
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 15, 2025
Contact: Simon | info@nurunigeria.org
YOLA, NIGERIA —Amy Gaman, Managing Director of Nuru Nigeria, delivered a moving TEDxYola talk this June, sharing her personal journey of resilience and her vision for cultivating hope through sustainable change in fragile communities of Nigeria.
Amy recounted her harrowing experiences of surviving terror attacks in northeast Nigeria, and then she details the life-altering moment that reshaped her plans for her life: “In that moment, we didn’t recognize who was a nurse, a doctor, or a student. We only had one option—we all reunited to save lives.”
Amy Gaman presenting on stage at TEDxYola
Her talk, titled Hope as a Skill, traced her transformation from aspiring physician to a development leader focused on cultivating hope and self-reliance in fragile communities. Amy noted, “Medicine saves lives. But sometimes, before people get to the hospital, it’s already too late.” She adds, “Hope became the expectation of fulfilling a purpose—a purpose that leads to divine fulfillment.”
Amy highlighted her work in northeast Nigeria, including efforts to reintegrate the Chibok schoolgirls into society, and her journey toward co-founding Nuru Nigeria. Inspired by Nuru’s vision of a world without cycles of unjust poverty, Amy helped establish a locally-owned and locally-led organization that has impacted more than 36,000 people.
“Hope as a skill looks like waking up every day to write a goal and deciding to pursue it,” she told the audience. “For our farmers, hope means profitable livelihoods—thinking of agriculture not just as an ancestral trait, but as a business.”
Under Amy’s leadership, Nuru Nigeria is equipping farmers to increase their incomes, breaking down barriers for marginalized communities, and equipping farmer families to cultivate their own lasting resilience. Amy’s TEDx talk served as both a testimony of her strength and a call to action, as she invited her audience to turn adversity into agency: “When we learn hope and practice hope, we become the engine room for transformative change.”
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About Nuru Nigeria:
Nuru Nigeria is a local nonprofit organization that works to build a resilience corridor across northeastern Nigeria through a holistic nutrition-sensitive agribusiness approach, to end extreme poverty. Nuru Nigeria focuses on establishing self-sustainable farmer organizations, increasing access to financial services and literacy, and strengthening community-led development initiatives. Visit www.nurunigeria.org to learn more.