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Announcing Safe Sister: The women’s digital safety fellowship for East Africa

Join the community of Safe Sisters!

We are pleased to announce the 3rd round of our women’s digital safety fellowship program starting March 2019.

Two years ago, we started the work of building a community of tech-savvy East African women ready to stand up and defend digital rights and digital safety while fighting online harassment in their communities.

Since then 21 amazing women from Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Tanzania have been trained to play an important role in their communities as digital security mentors!

We are excited to announce the expansion of this unique group of women.

We are looking for creative, self-motivated and dependable women who want to take their digital safety skills and online activism to the next level – inviting women human rights defenders from Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda to apply.

Participation involves 

  • Minimum 4 hours per week for 3 weeks before the first workshop to complete self-study assignments and exercises. Please note these exercises are mandatory for participation in the workshop;
  • Must be available for weekly email check-ins with mentors;
  • Must be able to attend a one-week workshop to be scheduled in March 2019 in Kampala, Uganda;
  • Opportunity to seek small grants to carry out community digital safety activities of your own;
  • Working with mentors and peers as you improve your skills and work to defend your community; and
  • Opportunity to participate in a 2nd gathering of Safe Sisters to further grow skills and reflect on practice and experienced gained during project implementation.

Application requires 

  • Applicants must have a demonstrated interest in digital safety and security;
  • Applicants should have experience working in the human rights and/or media field with strong links to communities who are digitally at-risk;
  • Applicants must hold a sufficient level of english, as english will be the working language; and
  • Applicants must complete and submit the application form here.

Selection Criteria 

Priority will be given to applicants who:

  • Demonstrate experience with strong technical competencies (though this need not be formal education);
  • Have experience with tech and human rights initiatives;
  • Demonstrate an understanding of their own and their community’s digital safety challenges and needs;
  • Propose creative project ideas; and
  • Construct clear project objectives/goals.

There are a limited number of positions open and competition is fierce so do apply on time and with a strong application!

Application deadline 

Applications are now open until 15th February 2019. Please apply by filling out the online application form. We will not be accepting submissions after this date.

If you have any questions, send us an email at: [email protected]

This 3rd round of Safe Sister: The women’s digital safety fellowship for East Africa is generously made possible by Bread For the World.

Safe Sister is a project of DefendDefenders and Internews.

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Human Rights Defender of the month: Leon Ntakiyiruta

As a child, Leon wanted to be a magistrate – whom he saw as agents of justice. Born in 1983 in Burundi’s Southern province, he came of age at a time of great social and political upheaval in the East African country. In 1993 when Leon was barely 10, Burundi was besieged by a civil war that would last for the next 12 years until 2005, characterized by indiscriminate violence and gross human rights abuses in which over 300,000 people are estimated to have died.In 2012, still struggling to find her footing in Kampala, Aida was introduced to DefendDefenders, where she was introduced to the organisation’s resource center, and assured, it (the center) would be at her disposal whenever she needed to use it.

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