Regional Projects Officer

Laureen Karayi Nabimanya

Laureen Karayi-Nabimanya is a women’s rights, gender activist and feminist, she holds a Master’s Degree of Arts in Development Studies from Nkozi University, a Post Graduate Diploma in Gender Equality Studies from the University of Iceland, a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice and a Bachelor of Laws (Honors). She has over 9 years’ experience in working on women’s rights, human rights, gender, research and lobbying, grants management, networking and organizing, policy and advocacy. Laureen is very committed to addressing the socio-economic human rights concerns with a special focus on women’s issues and promoting gender equality.

Sudan Senior Programme Officer

Wafa Adam

Wafa Adam Mahamoud is a women’s rights, gender activist and feminist, she holds a Master’s Degree of Gender Migration and Multicultural studies from Reginald Institution of Gender Peace and rights – Ahfad University for Women – Sudan, graduated from School of health Sciences with a Bachelor of Community Health Managements (Honors). She has over 13 years’ experience in working on women’s rights, human rights, gender, humanitarian accountability and social inclusion, grants management, networking and organizing, policy and advocacy. Wafa is very committed to addressing the socio-economic human rights concerns with a special focus on women’s issues and promoting gender equality.

Sudan Programme Officer

Adla Abubker

Adla Abubker is a women’s rights activist from Sudan with more than 15 years’ experience of working toward gender equality in Sudan. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Rural Development from Ahfad University for Women in Sudan. Her areas of expertise include working with grassroots communities, women’s economic empowerment, gender activism and negotiating with men to change inequitable attitudes.

Currently, Ms Abubker a Program Officer with SIHA in Sudan, where she oversees SIHA’s work on building women movement, and women in Islam, reforming gender-discriminatory legislation, and engaging youth on issues of gender, religion, and race. She believes that the link between religion and law is in dire need of reform, and that discriminatory interpretations of Islam are a root cause of violence against women in Sudan.

ETHIOPIA PROGRAM COORDINATOR

Zemdena Abebe

PROFILE: ZEMDENA ABEBE

Zemdena Abebe is the founder of Afri-colors, a social-enterprise startup, curating made-in-Africa products, crafted by women. As a Pan-Africanist -womanist- she refuses to be erased and amplifies the voices of women through her research, writing, multimedia -storytelling, organizing, and activism: disrupting intersecting oppressive systems. Her social justice advocacy work started in high school; Chaired Addis Ababa Girls’ Forum– which facilitated discussions amongst girls laying the foundation for legislative intervention against sexual abuse in Ethiopia. As the first women president of Addis Ababa University Students’ Union: she reaffirmed the need and organized various youth-led movements despite the hostile university context. One of the 22 young African women selected as part of the writing for social change workshop organized by AWDF and FEMRITE in Kampala, Uganda. An alumnus of the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship.

Amongst her multilayered affiliations, she sits on the advisory council of ActionAid Ethiopia. Previously, she worked with UNICEF Ethiopia and consulted many other local and international organizations such as the EU, FEMNET.HBF, FHS, TRUST AFRICA, etc. Volunteered for the African Union (African Academy of languages in Bamako, Mali: as a research and Marketing Assistant. Zemdena is a graduate of Political Science & International Relations, who often likes to dance her way to freedom. Asserting the notion that African women, girls & non-binary folks have the right to a life free of heteronormative -capitalist -anti-black -patriarchal terror based on their overlapping otherness: her work reaffirms that human progress is achieved through imagining a better world through the realization of a transnational strong justice-centered human kinship. Zemdena’s writings of resistance can be found on Pambazuka, Africa is a Country, HBF, African Feminism et al