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.

Duncan Chando is a motivated professional with six years of experience in project and program management in international and local settings. Over the years he has worked with CSOs and UN agencies implementing media and advocacy, refugee and migration, peace and reconciliation, sponsorship, and educational projects from a right-based approach at all levels. He currently works as a Consultant on South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) for the International Labour Organization and a Program Assistant (M&E) at UNDP in Nairobi. Duncan is a seasoned development practitioner with in-depth experience in integrated programs and understanding of project management, lobbying and advocacy, monitoring and evaluation, partnership development, capacity building, and community development. Duncan holds a Master’s degree in Development Policy from KDI School of Public Policy and Management (South Korea), an Erasmus Mundus Master of Arts in Advanced Development in Social Work from the University of Lincoln (United Kingdom), a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work from the University of Nairobi (Kenya), and a Postgraduate Diploma in Project Management from the Kenya Institute of Management.

Geoffrey Omondi Otieno has over six years of experience working in the nonprofit sector. Geoffrey earned a Bachelor of Science in Population Health from Kenyatta University and a Certificate in Civic Leadership from the YALI Regional Leadership Center, East Africa. He is a Co-founder of the Begin Life Safely Community-Based Organization, which educates expectant mothers in rural parts of western Kenya on safe practices for motherhood. Geoffrey currently serves as a Youth Advisory Board Member at Youth Combating Neglected Tropical Diseases and recently worked with the Aga Khan Development Network as a Country Monitoring and Evaluation Officer. Geoffrey previously worked with Abt Associates Inc. as a Monitoring and Evaluation Assistant, where he was mainly responsible for data collection and verification, training of community mobilizers, and report writing. He also previously worked with Education Effect Africa as a WASH Training Consultant for four years, during which he was responsible for developing WASH training curricula, training school health committees on the prevention of WASH diseases, and monitoring the implementation of the school sanitation plans. Geoffrey is highly skilled in development of data collection tools and quality checklists and data collection and analysis. Geoffrey also has deep experience in proposal development, research preparation, data quality assessment, training of data collectors, and coordination of data collection exercises.

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.