Emeline Joyce Ngaha Dingue – Building Safe Spaces for Health and Hope to Transform Youth Mental Health

Emeline Joyce Ngaha Dingue, is a passionate mental health advocate, who has contributed significantly to building systems, communities, and safe spaces where people can heal, thrive, and reclaim hope. Her journey reflects resilience, innovation, and the power of education to create lasting impact.

A Cameroonian public health practitioner, Mastercard Foundation Scholar, and proud member of the AL for Health Network, Emeline is currently pursuing an MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford, where she is a member of Wolfson College. Her journey reflects a deep, lifelong commitment to health equity, grounded in lived experience and expressed through meaningful action across continents.

Rooted in Community, Driven by Equity

Emeline’s passion for public and mental health was shaped early in life, growing up in a high‑density area of Yaoundé, Cameroon, where limited infrastructure exposed her to the stark realities of health disparities. These early experiences planted the seed for a career focused on co‑creating community‑based solutions for vulnerable populations.

Over the years, she has led and supported health programmes across Africa and Asia, blending technical expertise with empathy and cultural context. In the Philippines, Emeline managed the health components of two integrated community projects valued at over 4 million pesos, supporting over 1,000 families through healthcare, education, and livelihood interventions. Her work included designing monitoring and evaluation frameworks, training more than 100 community health volunteers, and collaborating closely with the Department of Health to ensure sustainability.

Her impact extends to Zimbabwe, where she supported paediatric blood culture diagnostics at the country’s largest hospital and contributed to quality assurance testing with the National Blood Services. Her undergraduate research on Salmonella typhi among food handlers further demonstrated her commitment to strengthening health systems and national disease surveillance.

Safe Space: The Care Shop – Transforming Youth Mental Health

In 2024, Emeline took her commitment a step further by founding Safe Space: The Care Shop, a youth
mental health initiative focused on improving access to psychosocial support for adolescents and young adults in Cameroon. The initiative was awarded $10,000 through the Mastercard Foundation Social Entrepreneurship (SEF) Fund, supporting its launch and early growth.

Today, Safe Space is reaching young people across five regions of Cameroon, including conflict‑affected areas with internally displaced students. By creating safe, supportive environments, the initiative addresses one of Africa’s most urgent and often overlooked challenges, “youth mental health”- and helps young people navigate trauma, uncertainty, and social pressure with dignity and support.

Her work ensures that young people have access to safe, supportive environments where they can seek help, build resilience, and thrive despite adversity. Alongside this work, Emeline also leads a WASH initiative with African Leadership for Infrastructure, further reinforcing her holistic approach to community health and wellbeing.

From Community Impact to Oxford: A Journey of Excellence

Earlier this year, Emeline’s impact and leadership were recognized with the Mastercard Foundation AfOx Scholarship, enabling her to pursue postgraduate studies at the University of Oxford. At Oxford, she is deepening her skills in research, programme design, and health systems strengthening; tools she plans to scale across low‑resource settings. Her long‑term vision is bold and clear: to improve health outcomes for at least one million socio‑economically disadvantaged people worldwide.

A Leader the AL for Health Network Celebrates

Emeline embodies the values of the AL for Health Network – technical excellence, empathy, service, and a relentless commitment to community‑driven impact. Her journey reminds us that leadership in health is not only about policy or institutions, but about people, dignity, and access to care. We are proud to spotlight Emeline Joyce Ngaha Dingue and celebrate her work, her vision, and her unwavering dedication to building healthier, more compassionate futures for Africa’s youth. Her story inspires us all to lead with purpose and create lasting change.