African Women Who Fought for Children's Rights
4 women in the archive worked for children's rights. They came from different countries and different centuries, but each of them saw a wrong that others accepted and set out to change it. Read their stories to see how the same cause looked from very different lives.
4 women in the archive
ContemporaryDestiny Ayo Vaughan
Founder of Mind the Gap Ireland and a survivor of child trafficking. Brought from Nigeria at five and held captive in Ireland for five years, she came through the foster care system, earned her degrees on scholarship, and became a TEDx speaker and United Nations delegate. She turned her own silence into a place where hundreds of others can speak.
ModernGraça Machel
Mozambique's first Minister of Education, international advocate for children and women, and the only woman to have been First Lady of two nations (Mozambique and South Africa).
ModernMaryam Uwais
Nigerian lawyer and advocate; Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments. Leading voice for children's rights, legal reform, and social protection in Nigeria.
ContemporaryTheresa Kachindamoto
Malawian paramount chief who has annulled over 3,500 child marriages in her district, sending girls back to school and challenging deeply entrenched traditions that rob girls of their futures.