Each year, the Skoll World Forum gathers social innovators and visionary leaders from around the world to the cobblestone streets of Oxford, UK for a whirlwind of ideation, advocacy, and dialogue. This year, two members of our leadership team—Alison Nakamura Netter, Executive Director (US), and Megan White Mukuria, Founder (Kenya) —joined peers from across the globe to share ZanaAfrica’s work and learn from others pushing the boundaries of social innovation.

March was a month of celebration and advocacy at ZanaAfrica as we joined the global community in honoring Women’s History Month. Highlights include ZanaAfrica receiving multiple honors at the 7th annual DIAR Awards Ceremony, and attending the International Women’s Day celebration in Homa Bay - an event graced by the First Lady of Kenya, Rachel Ruto.

Rebecca Cheptegei was a remarkable 33-year-old Ugandan marathon runner who had recently competed in the Paris Olympics. A symbol of strength and resilience, Rebecca was also a devoted mother. Her life was tragically cut short when her former boyfriend murdered her, setting her on fire in her home in Western Kenya after returning from church with her daughters. Read more in this post by Executive Director Alison Nakamura Netter.

Learn about how ZanaAfrica is training teachers across Kenya to deliver our proven reproductive health and life skills program. By partnering with educators and Government we're creating systemic change by integrating reproductive health and rights education into classrooms, equipping teachers with the knowledge and skills needed help improve adolescent health and safety nationwide, creating sustainable change for the next generation.

Last week, hope and terror converged once again in a matter of hours. Protests in Kenya began last month with #RejectFinanceBill2024. This bill, driven by IMF loans taken without public participation, sought to raise $2.66 billion in taxes, including reintroducing VAT on essential items like sanitary pads, further burdening ordinary people without improving services and further penalizing women for menstruating. Kenya, one of the world's most unequal countries, sees a tiny elite controlling the majority of wealth. Despite a High Court ruling against excessive police force, the government responded with violence against peaceful protestors.

Learn about how ZanaAfrica is leveraging digital health solutions to connect girls and women across Kenya to immediate reproductive health and rights support and referrals.

Learn about how ZanaAfrica is impacting girls across Kenya through the expansion of our proven reproductive health and life skills program. By partnering with educators and Government to deliver our proven solution, we're equipping girls with the knowledge and skills needed to enhance their agency, cause shifts to more equitable gender norms, and advance gender equity at scale.

Kenya’s Homa Bay County, with its high rate of HIV infections and teen pregnancies among adolescents and young adults, will benefit from this strategic partnership announced at the second edition of the Homa Bay International Investment Conference.

The Nia HealthLink chatbot and hotline provides rights-based reproductive health responses to important questions around menstruation, reproductive health and safety, STIs/STDs, relationships, consent and more.

ZanaAfrica Founder Megan White Mukuria attended the 20th Annual Skoll World Forum in Oxford, England. It was a week of learning, inspiration, and connecting with global changer-makers to discuss solutions for justice and equity.

With support from Theirworld, a leading global children’s charity based in the UK, ZanaAfrica piloted a teacher training program, delivering a life-skills and reproductive health and rights curriculum to students in Kenya.

We are thrilled to share that we have received a $750,000 grant from #StartSmall, Jack Dorsey’s philanthropic initiative.

We are thrilled to announce the results of the Nia Project, a randomised control trial (RCT) which evaluated the impact of ZanaAfrica’s program model of delivering pads + adolescent health and rights education.