Promoting child rights in Kenya - Pelastakaa Lapset ry

Annexe 3:Profile of authorsREV. AMBWAYA ASAMI LEAH (HSC)Leah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Community Development. She is also a holder of a PostGraduate Diploma in Financial Management and Administration.Leah is best known for her work in child advocacy, an area she has dedicated herself to for the past 20 years. Leahhas held various influential positions in her career. These include Executive Director, Child Life Trust, where sheworked closely with Ufadhili Kenya to shape the mindset of the corporate community from corporate giving to the nowpopular corporate social responsibility (CSR) concept. She was also the Chairperson of Girl Child Network, as well asthe current Chairperson, corporate affairs and placements under the Street Families Rehabilitation Trust fund.Presently, Leah is the Founder/Director of Terry Children Foundation. She also runs a school lunch program andprovides educational materials to a local primary school under the Terry Children Foundation as well as a rescue centerfor former child commercial sex workers in Machakos. She has been a Trustee/Board member of Street FamiliesRehabilitation Trust Fund since its inception in 2003. She is involved in the annual food fund campaign in partnershipwith Nakumatt Supermarkets where food collected is distributed to the needy nationally. Other innovative and effectivelocal resource mobilization campaigns she has spearheaded are the Food Fund, Christmas campaign, the Eastercampaign, and the children voices campaign.Over the years, Leah has given an opportunity to former street children to showcase their potential and creativity at theOther Side of the Street Exhibition, an annual event held at the Sarit Expo center. She is involved in the sanitary towelscampaign. At the height of the post election violence, with the support of the corporate sector, she mobilized donationsfrom the corporate sector which were taken to IDP camps.Leah is a Feather award winner humanitarian category 1 st runner-up 2010. Theme, “extra ordinary woman with extraordinary strength” 2010, she received a presidential honors (HSC) for championing the rights of children and promotingchild participation in Kenya. In April 2012, she was contracted by Government to coordinate the Kenya ChildrenAssembly (Kenya junior Government).Leah is a consultant/ facilitator in Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation on Child Rights Based Approachesto Programming.MATHENGE MUNENEMathenge Munene is the holder of a B.Sc Agriculture Degree from the University of Nairobi, MBA fromESAMI/Maastricht School of Business and a Social Forestry/Agro Forestry Post Graduate Certificate from IACWageningen, Holland. He also has training skills in Corporate Governance, Facilitative Leadership, Strategic Planning,Rights Based Approach to Programming, Project Management, Emergency Preparedness and Disaster RiskReduction.The study background and work experience has provided Mathenge with a sound understanding of ecological,environment and social issues. In the past he has worked with various NGOs in Kenya and other internationalagencies to establish social forestry programs in Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda. In the run up to the 1992 UnitedNations Conference on the Environment, he was a member of the Preparatory Committee that was instrumental inorganizing grass root environmental groups within Kenya and out of Kenya to ensure their participation in UNCED, theEarth Summit in Rio.From 1992 – 2010 he was the Country Director for Save the Children Canada in Kenya and has considerableknowledge of Kenya’s political, economic and socio- cultural landscape.Since joining Save the Children Canada in 1992, he helped to develop and strengthen child rights and child focuseddevelopment projects in Kenya and incorporating rights based programming and child participation with special focuson the rights of the girl child and children affected by HIV and AIDS and adolescents. As a child rights advocate, hehas participated and supported civil society work and lobbied the Kenyan government extensively and successfully,resulting in development of various child rights laws , policies and plans.62