Scholars

Daniel Maweu is a midwife and a reproductive healthcare educator with nine years of cumulative professional experience working in clinical midwifery, perioperative nursing care, and nursing education. Daniel currently works with Partners In Health-Liberia as a midwifery coordinator/educator. He has been vital in improving maternal and neonatal care at JJ Dossen Memorial Hospital and Pleebo Health Center through continuous mentorship of midwives in Southeastern Liberia. Daniel also works as a visiting obstetrics faculty at the School of Nursing, V.S William Tubman University, where he played a key role in setting up the midwifery department. Daniel has worked in various institutions as a nurse-midwife, perioperative nurse, and educator in both Kenya and Liberia. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Kenyatta University and a Master of Science in Nursing (Midwifery) from Mount Kenya University, Kenya. Daniels’ biggest passion is building resilient maternal health systems and he is a strong advocate of respectful, dignified maternity care for all women of reproductive age.

Godfrey Okumu is a social change advocate/activist with over 19 years of experience in community-led interventions, movement building, human rights advocacy, and management of social change projects in Africa. In his professional life, Godfrey has supported and nurtured grassroots groups and communities on human rights advocacy, campaigning, and networking/social movements. He is an alumnus AVAC HIV Prevention advocate and also an HIV-Cure Academy Fellow. He previously worked for NIGEE, where his roles were to spearhead campaigns on ending child marriage and FGM/C which also included championing for girl’s access to quality education. Previously, he worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a Field Coordinator for a Youth Intervention, where he was part of the team that adapted the eminently known Adolescents HIV/AIDS Evidence-Based Families Matter! and Healthy Choices I&II programs in Kenya. As part of his international assignment, he also worked for Actionaid International Zambia as a National Youth Inspirator. He was appointed to be a member of the International Planning Team for the GNB Global Meeting 2018 under Girls Not Brides. Currently, he is a Global Member of the Girls Not Brides Members Advisory Committee. At Tostan, Godfrey is part of the Program/TTC training team and the focal person for the Tostan’s Training and Replication pathway, where he is supporting Tostan’s two pilot initiatives in Nigeria namely ‘Strengthening Community Institutional Building in the Nigeria For Women Project (NFWP) Planning Grant and Uniting Nigerian Communities to End Violence Against Women and Girls.

Lorna Kanyuga is a skilled development professional with five years of experience in the social sector. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Nairobi. Currently, she is the Kenya Philanthropies Lead at Microsoft, where she coordinates digital training initiatives and entrepreneurship and employability programs. During her time at Yusudi Limited, she led the development, testing and launch of Jijali, an online learning program that uses blended learning techniques to provide personalized entrepreneurship and career training to over 1,400 young people. Previously, she was Life Skills Trainer at the same company, where she developed and delivered career preparation training to over 200 unemployed college graduates and young professionals. Prior to that, she managed the Social Projects Department at the AIESEC office in Kenya, where she led the development and implementation of strategies to grow the international volunteer program. Through these experiences, she has gained skills in project/program management, training, and youth development. In her spare time, Lorna volunteers at schools in informal settlements in Nairobi, where she supports schools in providing life skills training to students and fundraises for learning materials. She is passionate about skills development for youth from disadvantaged backgrounds, youth development and the use of technology in education.

Mary Mogona is from Kenya who serves in a grassroots organization well known as Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) which is based in the informal settlements of the country to build urban promise from urban poverty. She serves under the capacity of a coordinator under the future education program whose role is to execute a support model for SHOFCO graduates that continues to build on leadership skills, resilience, and provision of psychosocial support also engaging external stakeholders to make this a reality. Mary is passionate about young adolescents and believes in the provision of equal opportunities to all and mentorship as this would create a platform for young people to identify their potential to be able to be change-makers and come up with innovative solutions to the current challenges to create a long term impact.

Olive Wangui Kirigo is a 24-year-old female climate-change activist with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work. Her passion for environmental conservation inspired her to start an initiative known as FridaysForFuture-Kenya that advocates for environmental conservation in Kenya. Olive and her team were able to organize several clean-up activities, climate marches, and community sensitization meetings. In 2019, they were able to plant over 1000 trees in Eldoret, Kenya. The huge impact of Olive’s work has inspired journalists from Goethe Institute-Kenya to write articles about her work. Additionally, she was selected as one of the participants in the 2019 American Express Leadership Academy, a member of the Commonwealth Youth Gender & Equality Network, and a 2020 YALI EA RLC participant. Olive has a dream for her country Kenya and that is for it to be green and clean. This year FridaysForFuture-Kenya has partnered with an initiative called “Girl Up” to donate sanitary pads to girls in high school to fight against period poverty. At the same time, FridaysForFuture-Kenya will plant trees in every school that Girl Up donates sanitary pads to. Olive believes that this unique partnership will address the issues of period poverty and climate change all at once. Together, they aim to plant 6000 trees and support over 5000 girls in Nairobi in 2020.

Racheal Njiru has over eight years of experience in community development programs, specifically in community implementation, management of diverse programs, and coordination. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Integrated Community Development from Daystar University, Kenya. Currently, she holds a key role in Humanity & Inclusion as a Manager in the Disability and Inclusive Development Program. During the implementation of the project, she established an in-business task force supporting persons with disabilities in Kakuma on matters of economic inclusion. She has equally supported twenty-five micro-enterprises with disabilities in Kakuma by providing them with business development services, as well as advocating for linkage opportunities for them. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she contributed to concept development to FCDO that culminated in her organization receiving grants to support the recovery of micro-enterprises adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In relation, she contributed to the COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience concept and proposal development funded by MasterCard Foundation, where 200 MSMEs will be supported in the recovery of their businesses, by providing capacity building services and financial support. She believes in supporting access to developmental milestones among teenagers, and thus is passionate about offering mentorship and coaching to young teenagers to provide them with hope, courage, and faith to achieve their dreams. She is passionate about improving people’s lives by supporting them and equipping them with skills that will aid them to live dignified lives.

Redempta Mwende is a monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning professional with over 6 years’ experience working in the international development sector. Redempta is currently serving as a Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator for the East Africa and Yemen Region at Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). In her current roles, she provides strategic and technical support to NRC’s Monitoring and Evaluation efforts across ten countries. This includes supporting the implementation of NRC’s M&E standards, systems, and practices to produce, measure, and demonstrate improvements in program performance and inform evidence-based decision making. Redempta previously served as Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Officer at Mercy Corps supporting the Google-funded Youth Impact Labs and DFID-funded Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund programmes in Kenya. In these roles, she led all M&E functions in both programmes. Through the wide array of programmes implemented, she has a proven record of designing and execution of M&E systems, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, data management, operations research, evaluations, development of knowledge management systems, and M&E compliance. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree double major in Integrated Community Development and Social Work from Daystar University. She also holds a Master’s degree in Project Management and Evaluation from Kenyatta University. Additionally, she has a Monitoring and Evaluation Certificate from Global Learning Institute and African Medical and Research Foundation International Training Centre. Redempta enjoys focusing on youth employment and heath development programs, and has a strong passion for women empowerment.

Sarah Musengya is an educator and humanitarian with a strong passion for improving access, quality, and holistic lifelong education for marginalized children in fragile contexts. She has seen what it means to be a girl growing in the rural areas of Kenya — negative exposure to tribal brutality, harmful social and cultural practices, poor teaching practices, harsh environmental conditions, poverty, and chronic corruption hindering the full realization of quality education. These realities do not only trouble her as an educator but as a mother who, like any parent, wants the best for her children. Sarah is an alumna of the Young African Leaders Initiative, holds a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Education in Emergencies, and a Master’s degree in Project Planning and Management and Bachelors in Education. Sarah has a knack for Monitoring and Evaluation and holds a certificate in Statistical Package for Social Scientists. Sarah has over nine years of experience in the non-profit sector managing a range of education projects in both development and emergencies. She is an Education Coordinator for Norwegian Refugee Council where she leads the design and implementation of an Accelerated Education. She has worked with other NGOs such as Concern World Wide, World Vision and Aga Khan Foundation. She is enthusiastic about sharing knowledge, skills, and volunteers with the Inter-agency Network of Education in Emergencies in the teacher wellbeing reference group. Her five-year plan is to be in the forefront of developing contextually relevant inclusive frameworks that influence global education policies for vulnerable groups.