Category Archives: Fifa participants

Mary Kiio is the founder and lead consultant of Roshani Consultancy Services. She has worked with various media development organizations as a facilitator, moderator, and mentor for the past eight years. Mary has experience in developing training material and facilitating trainings on democracy and governance, online safety for women, conflict sensitive reporting, and humanitarian disaster management (Lifeline Programming , Refugees and Migration). The trainings are aimed at targeted media, civil society, county government officials and agencies.
Oranisation she has facilitated training sessions for include BBC Media Action Kenya, BBC Media Action Tanzania, BBC Media Action Somalia, Internews Europe, DW Akademie, VSO Tanzania and the Kenya Community Media Network (KCOMNET).
Further, Mary is a freelance journalist who is committed to telling stories on democracy & governance and climate change issues, as well as, a children’s book author.

Kelly is the Executive Director for i freedom Uganda Network and the Secretary for Gender and disability at the ISOC-UG Executive Committee. He contributed towards the development of the feminist principals on the Net with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). He has Ied digital security trainings for over 700 sexual and gender minorities in Uganda since the year 2013.
His past experience includes working as a program assistant for the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law. He currently on several Boards including for the Environmental Protection Trust Uganda where he is the current Chairperson.
He was part of the panel that launched the Keep it on Campaign at the RightsCon 2016. The campaign is an initiative driven by Access Now to push back on internet shutdowns across the globe. A highlight in 2015 was the winning of the Digital Security Tools Testing Challenge hosted by CIPESA under the OpenNet Africa initiative in partnership with Outbox.

Natasha (Stash) Msonza is a Zimbabwean digital security trainer. She is co-founder of the Digital Society of Zimbabwe, a voluntary network of technologists that specialises in building the digital resilience of human rights defenders at risk. Natasha is currently an Open Technology Fund fellow, implementing a digital security elections roadmap supporting selected human rights defender organisations in the face of increasing digital threats.

Neil Blazevic is Manager of the Technology Program at DefendDefenders (formerly East and Horn of African Human Rights Defender’s Project), a Uganda-based sub-regional organisation working to protect and support human rights defenders and journalists. He organises and implements efforts to improve digital safety practices of human rights defenders and their organisations, aids activists to have a voice online, and supports electronic documentation of human rights data. He has contributed material to Security In A Box and Level-Up, two leading digital security education resources. Neil holds a CompTIA Security+ Certification and a MA in International Development Studies. He is an honourary Muganda since 2011.

Zawadi is currently the Director of 7th Sense Communications. As a digital media strategist and a feminist passionate about harnessing the power of social media for social change, Zawadi  designs, implements and supports social media strategies that drive conversations, build movements, mobilize citizen action, and galvanize voices for change and development in Africa and around the world. She has used her skills to spearhead and support several successful feminist online campaigns including #WaremboNiYes, #NereasVoice, #TakeBackTheTech, #BustTheMyths and #1BillionRising. She designed and led Kenya’s landmark #1MilliForJadudi crowdfunding campaign, for which she won a social media award.
She has served as an advisor to a number of women focused initiatives including Akili Dada & Mother Health International.  She has contributed to Africa’s dynamic sexual rights movements through research, publications, training, movement building, and resource mobilization and is a regular speaker on these topics. She is the author of “When I Dare To Be Powerful” a first-of-it’s-kind collection of short stories of women engaged in sex work in East Africa.   She also runs her blog Digital Ubuntu Africa which is a platform to help cultivate responsible digital citizenship in Africa.