Ashura Michael is a young deaf human rights and Gender activist in Kenya .She was recently named as most influential young Kenyan 2020 Under leadership and governance category and One of the top 15 Kenyan women blazing trail the corporate suite 2020 (Law and Policy ), Kenyan advocacy personal if the year 2020,She has been featured by The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom award winning .
#FemaleForward profile series.
Ms.Ashura has a Diploma in Law , Certified from University of Illinois Urban-Champaign with Civil Leadership Certificate. She was also certified with Political, Leadership and Governance program by Fredrich Ebert Stiftung ,Advancing young women Agribusiness Enterpreneurs and Innovator certificate from Michigan state university . She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Gender and Development from University of Nairobi,currently she is during her second bachelor (Law) at the university of Nairobi and is one of the Africa Liberal Network women leadership program 2020.
Her experience truly represents the life of a deaf person in Kenya hence her ambition for law. She is passionate in advocating for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Kenya as evidenced in her roles ,she was a member of Young Voice, a Leonard Cheshire Disability project to support young people with Disabilities through campaigning for disability rights and equal access; She was once a co-chair for Youth Council of UNICEF’S Global Partnership on Children with Disabilities; She also served as Secretary General of Kenya National Association of the Deaf, Youths section; She was a Gender and Social Inclusive Officer at Peace Ambassadors Integration Organization and a Special Interests Representative of Youths Synergy Kenya. She was a Board Member of Positive Young Women Voice and has served a number of national and international organizations.
Ms. Ashura has taken part in many campaign activities including; leading many group of young people to campaign for the rights of youth ,women and persons with disabilities . She tries to help ensure that Persons with Disabilities in Kenya enjoy the same rights as other citizens.
She is the Founder and Director of Free a Girl’s World Network (FGW-N), an organization that aims to empower the girl child to explore her world freely without social-cultural and economic boundaries.
She was also appointed as a commissioner for Developing countries during the World Congress of the Deaf ,Ms. Ashura is a Mandela Washington fellow 2016 and she travels around the world sharing information about Persons With Disabilities, women ,youth and assuring young girls with disabilities that disability should not get in their way of achieving their dreams.
Having such experiences, she has always felt, from an early age, the need to engage with the minority groups in society, the need to speak out for the oppressed, the urge to fight for those who can’t fight and represent not only the disabled in Kenya but her entire country. For this reason she has also been active in political party activities to make sure that Persons with Disabilities are not left in the political arena. She saw the formation of the Orange Disability League that was launched in November 2016 in one of the major political parties in Kenya, an idea that was replicated across political parties in Kenya. She has made it her business that every girl child get access to sanitary towels that one has give birth to the Covid 19 1million pads for slum campaign .
She started the first ever TV show in Africa, The Handshake with Ashura, that aims to empower, motivate, educate, influence, challenge and inspire young women from all walks of life in Signs TV, first ever TV station in Kenya and Africa that propagates social, economic, political and talent development of persons with disabilities.Ms Ashura has won several humanitarian and leadership awards include SDGs ambassador award,utumishi bora award,digital inclusion award ,diversity award and many others ,currently she is a board of director for the National Council of Persons with Disabilities ,co chair of the Africa charter on democracy ,
election and governance Kenya chapter and the speaker of the EALA vijana Assembly .
Ms. Ashura is guided by the wise counsel of Mother Teresa that, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.
Recent Comments