Human Rights Defender of the month:Immaculate Nabwire and Daphne Nakabugo

“You’ll be surprised how many people out there, including educated ones, lack even the basic skills in digital safety. And as technology gets more advanced, it is getting ever more lucrative for hackers and other malign actors, which means that the urgency of the need for digital security skills for everyone cannot be over-stated,” says Daphne.

Daphne Nakabugo Tweet

A data and tech-enthusiast, Daphne joined DefendDefenders in 2019, having trained as a software engineer and apprenticed as a private tech-preneur with Engero, a company she co-founded with her partner.

Nine years earlier, Immaculate had joined the same organisation as an Information Technology intern from St. Lawrence University. She quickly gelled in – providing general ICT maintenance support for DefendDefenders staff and human rights defenders in need, so efficiently that she was confirmed as full-time staff at the end of her internship.

Together, they are today fondly known as DefendDefenders’ “women in tech,” overseeing the organisation’s tech flagship programs – Safe Sisters and Ttaala. The former is a fellowship program specially tailored for WHRDs that skills and equips them to respond to digital security challenges they face in their work and daily life, while the latter seeks to enable HRDs and organisations to scale their work through the use of relevant digital tools and strategies.

Daphne and Immaculate are at the heart of both programs, and have over the years conducted tens of trainings, equipping WHRDs with life-saving skills to pushback against cyber threats and harassment and supporting organisations to optimize digital tools for greater efficiency and effectiveness in their work.

“So far, we have commissioned 10 groups of safe sisters, composed of over 50 members that have gone through our training,” says Immaculate.

Immaculate Nabwire Tweet

The programs’ beneficiaries are not limited to Uganda alone. Many of them have been drawn from other countries within the East and Horn of Africa and have gone on to replicate similar initiatives in their respective countries.

Lourdes Walusala is one such beneficiary. A radio producer at the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, she was a victim and survivor of online gender-based violence when she learned of and signed up for DefendDefenders’ safe sisters’ fellowship. After the year-long fellowship, she collaborated with the Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK) to conduct a digital security training for women journalists with the aim of equipping them with practical skills to enhance their online safety. In 2019, she produced a digital security fact sheet for AMWIK, which helps users to identify abusive behavior online and offers practical suggestions on how to confront it.

Lourdes’ story is similar to that of Zaituni Njovu from Tanzania. A 2017 Safe Sister alumni, she went on to co-found Zaina Foundation – a not-for-profit organisation whose mission is to empower women in Technology in Tanzania. She has since become a fully-fledged digital security trainer, using her foundation to raise awareness on digital security for Tanzania’s women journalists, and was at the forefront of monitoring internet shutdowns towards Tanzania’s 2020 presidential election.

“It is such testimonies that keep us going,” says Daphne, adding, “Knowing that someone feels safer out there as they go about their work because of your efforts, or that they’re replicating what they’ve learned in their communities to empower even more people is fulfilling.”

Daphne Nakabugo Tweet

The conversation on women in ICT could not have been better timed. This month, the world commemorated the annual International Women’s Day 2023, with a call for worldwide action to eliminate the digital gender gap and to put in place systems that incentivize more women into tech spaces. Supported by Daphne and Immaculate, DefendDefenders curated a similar online campaign to #EndTheDigitalGenderGap. Immaculate says we can do more to make this global aspiration a reality:

“A lot still needs to be done. Part of the problem we have to confront is the stereotype that ICT is essentially a man’s field. We need to challenge this by covering women-in-tech champions more, so that young girls can grow up knowing that they too can be leaders in tech. For those already out there, we need to collectively commit to making it safe for them to express themselves without the fear of cyber harassment. It can be done,” Immaculate says.

Immaculate Nabwire Tweet

See more HRDs of the Month

Human Rights Defender of the month: Omar Faruk Osman

Omar Faruk’s career, and the passion that drove it, were the product of his circumstances. He was born in 1976, in the first of strong man Mohamed Siad Barre’s two-decade rule over Somalia, which was characterized by gross rights abuses and barely existent civic space. He came of age in the 90s when those abuses and rights violations were peaking, as his country was engulfed by a ruinous civil war following the collapse of the Siad Barre dictatorship.

Human Rights Defender of the month: Rita Kahsay

When the Ethiopian Federal Government representatives and those of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) signed a peace agreement in Pretoria, in November last year, the two parties were hailed for ending arguably the deadliest conflict of the 21st century, in which over 600,000 people had died.
But long before the negotiators for peace got around to an agreement, there were many other unsung heroes, who, through individual and collective efforts helped sustain the world’s gaze on the dire situation in Tigray, despite the Ethiopian Government’s determined efforts to hush it up.

Human Rights Defender of the month: Godfrey Kagaayi

Born 33 years ago, in Bukoba, northern Tanzania, Godfrey Kagaayi did not have to look elsewhere for inspiration to tackle the daunting challenge of mental health. By his own admission, the family and community in which he was raised were fertile grounds for the same.
His family had crossed the border into Uganda when he was barely 5 months, settling into present day Rakai district. But the Rakai of the 90s was a difficult place for a child to make their earliest memories: In 1990, Uganda’s first ever case of HIV/AIDs was reported in the district, setting off a decade of suffering and anguish for many of its residents. Taking advantage of the Rakai’s fishing and polygamous lifestyle, the novel virus spread like wildfire, killing people in droves and leaving untold heartache in its wake.

Human Rights Defender of the month: Hiader Abdalla Abu Gaid

Hiader Abdalla Abu Gaid is one of the lucky survivors of Sudan’s latest conflict.

He was born 36 years ago, in Almalha locality, North Darfur state, the third born in a family of 10. Then, Darfur was not the hot bed of war and conflict it has since become infamous for. Although the region, predominantly inhabited by Sudan’s black population remained segregated by the predominantly Arab government in Khartoum, its people co-existed in thriving, predominantly subsistence communities. In Almalha, people reared camels and cattle, while others tended crops. The community was also famed for its hospitality to strangers, welcoming outsiders who ended up staying, owning land, and intermarrying with their hosts.

Human Rights Defender of the month:Immaculate Nabwire and Daphne Nakabugo

In personality, Immaculate Nabwire and Daphne Nakabugo could not be more different. Where the former is loud, if free-spirited, and mischievous, the latter is quiet, reticent, and predominantly solitary. Together though, they are the quiet champions behind DefendDefenders’ digital skilling programs, equipping (women) human rights defenders with critically transformative – and sometimes, life-saving digital tools and skills.
“You’ll be surprised how many people out there, including the literate are not exposed to the idea of digital safety. And as technology gets more advanced, it is getting ever more lucrative for hackers and other malign actors, which means that the urgency of the need for digital security skills for everyone cannot be over-stated,” says Daphne.

Human Rights Defender of the month:Mary Pais Da Silva

On 17 February 2023, in Ethiopia’s rustic resort of Bishoftu, more than 5000Km from her homeland, Mary Da Silva was announced winner of the 2023 AfricanDefenders Shield Award, in the presence of hundreds of colleague human rights defenders from 36 African countries. It was a fitting validation for the Eswatini human rights lawyer, whose sense of empathy and sensitivity to injustice has been a defining hallmark of her career.
Born 45 years ago in Lubombo, eastern Eswatini, the last of 4 siblings, Mary attributes her values to her upbringing. Although she was born in Eswatini, her parents are originally from Mozambique, and only relocated to eSwatini at the start of the Mozambican civil war that lasted between 1977-1992, which ravaged families and displaced many others.

Human Rights Defender of the month: Jane Naini Meriwas

Like many African societies, The Samburu community in Northern Kenya is a gerontocracy – a very hierarchical community in which elders hold sway over almost all private and public matters. Among these predominantly pastoral nomads, very little importance is attached to the young – especially young girls, who are barely given a chance at education and often married off before their first menstrual cycle, but not before they undergo mandatory Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
It is in this community that Jane Naini Meriwas was born 46 years ago, in Kipsing village, Oldonyiro Subcounty, Isiolo County. When she was 16, her mother passed on, and she watched with great trepidation as her father planned to marry another wife, not sure what that would mean for her or her ambitions for school. As it turned out, fate was on her side. When her father uncharacteristically asked what she thought of his plans, Jane seized the opportunity to stand up for herself and interests:

Human Rights Defender of the month: Kasale Maleton Mwaana

Kasale’s human rights activism precedes his years. The son of pastoralist parents from Ngorongoro district in northern Tanzania, he grew up seeing his parents and entire community having to defend their land and way of life against authorities who thought their lands could be put to better use. Now, at 25, Kasale is already one of the most recognizable advocates of his people’s cause, much to the ire of Tanzanian authorities.
“Our people’s struggle goes back many generations. It started with the pushing out of our forefathers from Serengeti to gazette Serengeti National Park in 1959, and then further evictions from the Ngorongoro crater to gazette the Ngorongoro conservation area in 1975. Since then, every generation has had to resist further evictions. It’s now my generation’s turn,” he says.

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Human Rights Defender of the month:Immaculate Nabwire and Daphne Nakabugo

Human Rights Defender of the month: Omar Faruk Osman

Human Rights Defender of the month: Rita Kahsay

Human Rights Defender of the month: Godfrey Kagaayi

Human Rights Defender of the month: Hiader Abdalla Abu Gaid

Human Rights Defender of the month:Immaculate Nabwire and Daphne Nakabugo

Human Rights Defender of the month:Mary Pais Da Silva

Human Rights Defender of the month: Jane Naini Meriwas

Human Rights Defender of the month: Kasale Maleton Mwaana

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