ZWRCN Currently hosting Karen Mukwasi, a Mandela Washington Fellow
archived | 07 Aug 22
ZWRCN is currently hosting Karen Mukwasi, a Mandela Washington Fellow (MWF 2016). As part of the Mandela Washington Fellowship Programme, Karen studied civic leadership at Indiana University Bloomington in United States of America. The fellowship is the flagship of the Young African Leadership initiative (YALI), a brainchild of former US President Barack Obama. Currently she is at the Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre as part of the MWF professional development program where she is assisting the communications department. Karen is a software engineer, social entrepreneur, writer and women’s rights activist.
Karen Mukwasi has over five years of experience working in the area of women's rights. She is currently the program officer for Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe, where she coordinates the International Images Film Festival for Women in five African countries, namely Zimbabwe, Uganda, Somalia, Malawi, and Kenya. She has recently co - founded The Girl Code, an organization that teaches young women how to use ICTs effectively to overcome their everyday challenges and promote safe spaces for girls and young women. As a software engineer, she is currently working on developing a platform that will enable women to fully express themselves using technology. She is also a member of YALI Tech Girls a platform for Mandela Washington fellows who champion women’s development through the use of ICTs.
She is also a published author who is passionate about writing for social justice, her short story “Before Dawn” features in the anthology titled “A Family Portrait”, published by the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa. Her work has also been published by Her Zimbabwe, a web based platform that promotes the voices of Zimbabwean women, Deyu African and Afridiaspora.