The AWDF is a feminist fund that resources, supports and nurtures African women’s rights organisations.

I have consulted for the AWDF since 2019, facilitating workshops in both English and French to over 50 women’s rights groups from across the African continent and the Middle East. I also authored a guide for feminist communications entitled Flipping the Script. I consider working with grassroots organizations with limited resources who face challenging environments, and giving them tools to reinforce their public communications and draw attention to their causes a huge privilege.

Workshop participant

The International Committee for the Development of Peoples is an international NGO, who in partnership with UNICEF, provides capacity building for organizations working on social norms change with a focus on sexual abuse and harmful practices.

Following an in-person workshop, where we used traditional oral folktales, personal stories, and performance techniques, I developed a storytelling manual to support their work in community engagement programmes. I also delivered online storytelling workshops for the same organization for young creatives from Kenya, Somalia, Italy and the US.

Whilst the majority of human rights abuses happen in the Global South, over half of all funding goes to rights related work in North America and Western Europe. The strengthening Human Rights Worldwide global initiative of the Ford Foundation aimed to reverse this power imbalance through large grants over a five-year period.

Working with Tinkle, a brand agency headquartered in Spain with global corporate clients, I designed and delivered customized online and in-person communication workshops for major clients including Danone, Repsol, and Fluidra, training over 100 employees across organizations.

CEWARN is an organization that works in conflict prevention in the eight IGAD countries in the East and the Horn of Africa region.

I produced an abridged version of their communication strategy and also facilitated two virtual workshops for 38 staff members to strengthen internal communications across headquarters and national offices. Despite the challenges of holding this workshop online due to the pandemic, I supported them to write and publish op-eds and create video content. Some of my recommendations following the workshops included providing additional support to staff by developing an implementation plan and creating a social media calendar.

Workshop participant

Abdurahman Mohammed is a conflict early warning and rapid response expert, working at Ministry of Peace in Ethiopia. Having worked in peace and security and as an equitable development advisor for over a decade, he believes the solution to preventing violent conflict is simple – a return to our own African values.

As a child, I loved football. Any free moment I had, I would join my friends and play football on the street outside my house. In those days, whenever a religious leader would pass by, we would stop playing and let him cross the road. It didn’t matter what religion we belonged to. It was simply an act of respect. During cultural and religious ceremonies, we would all celebrate, drink coffee or eat together, regardless of what ethnic group or religion our families belonged to. In fact, as a child growing up in Addis Ababa, I didn’t even know what ethnic group I belonged to.