WomenLift Health is about action

Action taken by women, men, organizations and societal leaders that, together, add-up to transformative change.

Meet the WomenLift Health Africa team
Powering change.

Norah Obudho

Health Integration & East Africa Director

Irene Gitonga

Senior Program Coordinator, East Africa

Terry Kigundu

Lead Facilitator, East Africa

Liberty Kituu

Communications Manager, East Africa

Senior Program Coordinator, East Africa

Irene brings in nine years of program coordination experience; working with clients in the public, private and development sector. Prior to joining Womenlift Health, she was an associate program coordinator for a HR consultancy firm which specializes in organizational development capacity building. Irene was key in handling all logistic operations for participants from across Africa, UK, US and Indonesia.

Irene’s early career was as a program officer where she grew her passion in coordinating programs, developing leadership materials for teenage girls and organize leadership workshops for youth in low incomes areas.

In her spare time, she is engaged in different initiatives geared towards bringing awareness and

advocating for children with special needs. She believes that changing society’s mindset towards this group will encourage others to treat them with dignity and respect and see them as equal to the task in contributing to the societyIrene holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management with a minor in Psychology. She is also a certified life coach and PAGS practitioner (a special needs assessment tool)

Irene believes in creating spaces for women where they can nurture their skills and meet with other like-minded women who are occupying spaces of key decision making like boards where they can make the change they want to see with boldness.

Lead Facilitator, East Africa

Terry Kigundu oversees the instructional design cycle from training needs assessment, design, contextualization, implementation of WomenLift’s Leadership Journey and other leadership modules  for mid-career women in Health in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.  She is an enthusiastic professional with over 15 years’ experience in coordinating development programs in both local and international liaisons in Kenya and Africa at large. She is a versatile trainer, with broad-based experience putting together needs based training packages, particularly targeting women in Africa. Terry is passionate about women leadership and decision making, mentorship and coaching and  women economic empowerment, all aimed at advancing Gender Equality.

Terry was formerly the Course Leader at the Africa Centre for transformative and Inclusive Leadership (ACTIL), an establishment between UN Women East and Southern Africa Region and Kenyatta University, Nairobi- Kenya. During her time at ACTIL she also led the design and implementation of Transformational Leadership journey for over 3,500 women and youth in over 60% of the countries in Africa in both Anglophone and Francophone.

Terry holds a Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies, Masters in Project Planning and Management, ongoing PhD in Gender and Development Studies. She is also a Certified Facilitator and Executive Coach.

Communications Manager, East Africa

Liberty is a multifaceted Communications Specialist with experience in the design and implementation of communications strategies, as well as the strategic use of multimedia channels such as print, radio, television, and digital to help organizations achieve strategic goals.

He has over ten years of experience in diverse industries, including mainstream media, civil society movements, local governments and international development institutions working in East Africa for the emancipation of girls and women’s rights organisations (WROs).

Prior to joining WomenLift Health, he worked as the communications lead at The Mawazo Institute, a women-led African organization based in Nairobi, Kenya, with a presence in the United States supporting early-career women researchers as they work to find solutions to local and global development challenges, and as a communications officer and strategist at the Community Advocacy and Awareness (CRAWN) Trust, a change catalyst that provides African women and girls with the tools, voice and platforms through which they can effect change. He has a BA in development communications, ongoing MA in diplomacy, development and international security.

Senior Program Manager, East Africa.

Racheal OUKO has over 10 years bilingual  English and French professional experience with various International and regional NGOs (Stichting Aflatoun International, PALU, Equality Now, KENWOG , AFDB)in gender, leadership and governance.  She has managed programs and projects in Africa, MENA, Asia and the Americas. She also has experience in movement building and solidarity for advocacy with women’s rights organizations in the region and globally.  Prior to joining WomenLift Health, Racheal  worked at the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) as Bilingual Membership liaison lead, engaging with over 800 individual and organizational women’s rights organizations from 50 African countries and the diaspora. Racheal is passionate on women’s transformative leadership to create change within and without. Racheal was the program lead for the Women in Political Participation (WPP) Project implementing in 8 African countries. Ms Ouko is a script writer and an expert in using drama and theatre Arts as a tool for advocacy and development and a national adjudicator at the Kenya National Schools and Colleges Drama and Film Festival. Racheal holds a BED Arts French, a DALF C1 and a Post Graduate Diploma -Pro FLE from CNED – France. She is finalizing her MA in Diplomacy, Development, and International Security. Racheal is passionate on the gender agenda, solidarity and sisterhood.

featured video

What is leadership?

Meet the inaugural East Africa Leadership Journey Cohort and learn what leadership means to them.

Mission

Our mission is to expand the power and influence of talented women in global health and catalyze systemic change to achieve gender equality in leadership.

Vision

Our vision is a world where diverse, accomplished leaders collectively transform global health outcomes.

Where we work

We are establishing partnerships to support Country Implementation Hubs, beginning with the United States, India, and East Africa.