Florence Mwale is a trained journalist who is currently pursuing her bachelor's degree in Development studies. She works for the Alliance for Community Action as a Program Assistant. Florence is assertive, efficient, and decisive such that she has led project initiatives by her organization including Women’s voices in Community, Speak Up Girls project and Ask election. The projects have given Florence an opportunity to train, and at the same time understand project management to achieve set objectives while monitoring budgets. Florence has been trained to provide citizen journalism training to young people, as well as trainings on digital security, risk assessment, and protection planning for Human Rights Defenders. She is also a trainer on social accountability and the rights-based approach. Florence is passionate about community engagement and youth participation in governance.

Michael Leo is a professional teacher with over 3 years of experience in the non-profit sector. He earned a Bachelor's Degree of Arts with Education (Kiswahili & Linguistics). He is a Youth Engagement Officer at Shirika la Kijana Angaza Tanzania – SHIKIATA, a Team Leader at National Youth Engagement Network and an SSA Ambassador at Peace First. Michael is also a MCW Global Fellow working on a SRHR project. He is a participant in the Great Lakes Youth Network for Dialogue and Peace, a project that aims to contribute to peace and stability in the Great Lakes Region by promoting the active, cooperative, sustainable and positive role of youth actions. In January, 2022 attended a Regional Peace School at Goma, DRC Congo which aimed at creating a close exchange between youth initiatives and creating connections with national and international stakeholders in politics, business, civil society, academia and the media so as to perpetuate peace building activities. From 2019 – 2021 Michael served as a Global Peace Ambassador at GPC organization, he successfully advocated for peace in 4 public secondary schools and in the community. In June, 2022 Michael Leo was awarded a seed grant of 1,000 USD from the Pollination Project to undertake a “Local Trees Nursery Project” which aims at introducing tree nurseries in secondary schools around the Mwanza region. To commemorate this year’s African Liberation Week as a member of Africans Rising, he organized an event to raise awareness on GBV to 200 adolescents in school.

Olivia Otieno holds a Bachelor of Science degree in public health. For over 4 years, she has been an advocate for SRHR of young people, with a vast experience on policy and budget advocacy, and great skills on budget analysis and policy development. She has also worked on Gender and Social Protection, a women-led approach to protection from Gender Based Violence, and is a researcher who contributes to the reproductive health of women and girls. Olivia also has a Programme Design and Influencing and Management expertise, mainly using a Human-Rights Based Approach to design and implement sexual and reproductive health, gender equality and women’s rights programmes. She has been doing development work at a local and national levels with notable contributions at the global level for 4 years, working for a network for adolescents and youths of Africa, Sexual and Reproductive health and Rights Alliance Kenya, Royal Tropical Institute, and (KIT). Olivia is passionate about the meaningful involvement of young people and mentorship, and served in the capacity of the chairperson of the Kenya SRHR Alliance Youth Council youth council 2018-2020 and as a representative of young people in different platforms. Oliva is the founder and community leader of Power Dada, a CBO based in Kisumu that focuses on creating safe spaces for young women and girls in the slum areas of Kisumu. She visualizes a world where all young women are able to enjoy their sexual and reproductive health and are free from all forms of violence.

Agada Victor Agbo (or A.A. Victor) is a teacher, activist, ICNC alumni and the founder of Green Light Movement in Nigeria. Victor is a fierce believer in nonviolent civil resistance as an alternative to violence and a means of fostering good governance. He promotes peace and good governance through people-power education and direct actions. Victor is a graduate of economics education from the University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria. He has worked with several nonprofit organisations as a peer educator for marginalised groups for years. He has taught History and Languages at the elementary school level, and was awarded the best teacher in competence and character. Victor was the National President of the All Northern States Students Association of Nigeria between 2016-2017. He was a runner-up at the Student Union Government (SUG) election at the FCT College of Education in 2016. Victor is a fan of coffee, with an eternal love for penguins.

Victor Asumani joined the Nkhotakota Community Radio Station in 2003, and in 2014 he won an award from the National Media Institute of Southern Africa (Malawi chapter). In 2015, Victor started his tertiary education at Skyway University in Lilongwe, studying in Journalism and Media Studies. Victor worked at the Nkhotakota Community Radio Station as a head of programs up until 2020 in August when I left Nkhotakota Radio. He joined Umunthu FM in April 2021, where he is currently working as Programs Manager. The very same year at Umunthu FM in 2021, Victor won an award from MISA Malawi chapter “Best Farm Radio” which was sponsored by Farm Radio Trust.

Ahouty Kouakou is from Cote d’Ivoire. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in Communication and Anthropology. This academic background pushes him to address development issues including the grave violation of human rights and social injustice that the vulnerable face in their daily life. In line with that, in 2013, he founded a human rights organization called Action et Humanisme. He has a ruling motto which is « Empower the vulnerable with knowledge and skills they need to be self-sufficient ». Thus, since the creation of the organization he has a plan of action which allows him to train communities on their basic rights and how to use nonviolent direct action methods to claim these rights. In that context, from 2013 till now he has trained more than 300 persons on human rights, anti-bias and active nonviolent action. As a result, after the completion of trainings, people with disabilities in Cote d’Ivoire launched a movement named « Honor » to claim their rights for employment. This movement pushed the government to take a decree or law to recruit annually 200 qualified persons with disabilities to work in the public administration. Besides that, the training allowed local communities in rural areas to organize movements and resist against foreign multinationals and fight against illegal logging and land expropriation in the villages. He is an ICNC (International Center on Nonviolent) LIN Fellow Alumni and actual 2022 30-Disability Impact List Honoree. https://mydiversability.com/d30-2022-honorees/ahouty-kouakou

Mr. Fikiri Nzoyisenga is a dedicated human rights, community organizer, and peacebuilding advocate from Burundi. A Rotary Peace Fellow, he is also the founding director of SEMERERA, an organization working with hundreds of grassroots women’s and youth's groups in peacebuilding and decision-making processes. On the one hand, the organisation focuses on the fight for gender equality and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls. On the other hand, it uses sports, music, and art to enhance young people’s participation in peacebuilding and decision-making processes at the local level. Throughout his long activism career, Fikiri has spearheaded programs that have built the leadership, advocacy, and entrepreneurial capacities of marginalized women and young people; provided free legal assistance to victims of gender-based abuses; and contributed toward the elimination of barriers to girls’ education in his community and around. Besides, he works as a community development specialist for the World Bank in Burundi. Fikiri holds an LLM Degree in International Human Rights Law from the United Kingdom (Bangor University) and a Post-graduate Diploma in Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation from Makerere University (Kampala, Uganda). He is an alumnus of some prestigious fellowship programs, including the Rotary Peace Fellowship (2021), the Obama Foundation Leaders Africa (2018), the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders (2014), and the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowship (2020). For his hobbies, Fikiri likes reading novels and playing football.

Nicolas Mbiya is an active non-violence practitioner activist and changemaker based in Mbujimayi. For more than 7 years, he has been committed to human dignity and social justice within the citizen movement Fight for Change (LUCHA) where he works as a member of the communication unit. At the national level, he participates in the development of the strategies and actions of the movement and also trains new members in the philosophy of LUCHA (Luchology). Very present in the Bye Bye Kabila campaign between 2016 and 2018, Nicolas was fired by the community radio that hired him and several times arrested and imprisoned for his opinions. At the local level, he is currently working on issues of transparency in the mining sector and the fight against corruption as well as citizen control in local governance. Nicolas is a Mandela Washington Fellow 2022.