Our Guest Speakers

Graça Machel

Graça Machel is a renowned international advocate for women’s and children’s rights, and has been a social and political activist for decades. She is President of the Foundation for Community Development (FDC), a not-for-profit Mozambican organisation she founded in 1994. The FDC makes grants to civil society organisations to strengthen communities, facilitate social and economic justice, and assist in the reconstruction and development of post-war Mozambique.

Over the years, Graça Machel has gained international recognition for her achievements. Her many awards include the Laureate of Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger from the Hunger Project in 1992 and the Nansen Medal in recognition of her contribution to the welfare of refugee children in 1995. She has received the Inter Press Service’s International Achievement Award for her work on behalf of children internationally, the Africare Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award and the North-South Prize of the Council of Europe, among others.

Graça Machel has served on the boards of numerous international organisations, including the UN Foundation, the Forum of African Women Educationalists, the African Leadership Forum, and the International Crisis Group. Among many other commitments, she is Chair of the Fund Board for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, and Peer of the African Peer Review Mechanism.

Unity Dow

A lawyer, human rights activist, and writer from Botswana, Unity Dow was the first female high court judge in Botswana’s history. She is the author of four novels and a non-fiction work on the Botswana AIDS crisis. As a lawyer, Dow earned acclaim for her stance on women’s rights and established an international reputation in the landmark Attorney General of Botswana vs. Dow case that effectively overturned a law banning women from passing their nationality over to their children. Her 1992 lawsuit was recognised as a landmark case in the fight for women’s rights when U.N. Women published its flagship report: ‘Progress of the World’s Women 2011-2012: In Pursuit of Justice.’

She worked as a partner in Botswana’s first all-female law firm before becoming the first female High Court Judge. Currently serving her second term as Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists, she has been chosen to help implement the new Kenyan constitution.

Chouchou Namegabe

Chouchou Namegabe is a pioneering, fearless voice for justice and accountability in the Congo who uses community radio to report on the sexual violence against women in the lawless eastern section of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At great personal risk, the self-taught radio journalist traveled through refugee camps in remote regions to collect wrenching personal accounts from women traumatised by violence. She has earned a reputation as a fearless journalist with considerable expertise in women, health and human rights, known for courageously denouncing corruption and mismanagement.

Chouchou also founded the South Kivu Association of Women Journalists to support her activism and train women journalists. In a culture in which women are shamed into silence, she has helped women find their voices and given them a support network to grow professionally as journalists.

Molly Melching

Having lived and worked in Senegal since 1974, Molly Melching has received international recognition for her groundbreaking educational programmes that have led communities to affect life transforming changes including the abandonment of female genital cutting and child/forced marriage. More than 4,500 communities in Senegal, Guinea, The Gambia, Somalia and Burkina Faso have made public declarations for abandonment of harmful traditional practices following a human rights-based education program implemented by Tostan, the NGO founded by Molly in 1991. Participants in the programme then reach out to share new information and engage members of their social networks in important decisions effecting their lives.

Molly has been honored for her expertise in non formal education, human rights training, and social transformation, including the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2010.

Gcina Mhlophe - Moderator

Gcina Mhlophe is a well-known South African freedom fighter, activist, actor, storyteller, poet, playwright, director and author. Storytelling is a deeply traditional activity in Africa and Mhlope is one of the few woman storytellers in a country dominated by males. She does her most important work through charismatic performances, working to preserve storytelling as a means of keeping history alive and encouraging South African children to read.