Rachel Wambui Mburu

After finishing her secondary education, Rachel Wambui Mburu moved in with her grandmother who lived in one of Nairobi’s largest slums. There she witnessed violence against women on daily basis.

“Every day, I saw women become victims of gang rape and sexual assaults. I saw girls who did not go to school. I wondered what I could do to help them,” explains Rachel. In 2004, Rachel joined the organization called Citizens Coalition for Constitutional Culture (4C-Trust). She has been leading the organization’s Citizens Education and Peace Program, which designs and leads capacity building and awareness raising activities. “We do our best to make sure that our activities are based on community needs. For some groups, we provide an overview of women’s rights while at other times we focus on issues specific to our participants such as property issues or violence against women,” explains Rachel.

She credits her years in the field with her ability to develop initiatives that promote gender equality. “In encouraging women’s rights, we must identify and involve gender-responsive men who will denounce the submissive position of women in our society,” says Rachel.

While participating in HRAP, Rachel said she was surprised to learn that so many initiatives exist to build the confidence of girls from an early age. “I want to initiate similar activities for school girls as raising them as leaders can be a solid ground for their future active role in Kenyan society.” She said she plans to do this through Mwamko Trust, an organization she co-founded.

The greatest value of HRAP, according to Rachel, was the opportunity to learn from her fellow Advocates. “We found out that we have the same problems. That recognition made us more firm in pursuing our goals as we realized that we are not alone in our battle for human rights,” says Rachel.

By 2010 Advocate Lana Ackar of Bosnia