Sengwer Winnie

Sengwer Winnie is a woman human rights defender from the Sengwer Indigenous community that resides in 3 counties in Kenya. Winnie works at the Defenders Coalition as an Advocacy Officer, an organization that works primarily for the safety, security, and well-being of Human Rights Defenders in Kenya by building their capacities and positively profiling the work of Human Rights Defenders The Sengwer Indigenous community is a hunter-gatherer community whose way of life is in the forest and their socio-economic activities include beekeeping and collecting herbs for medicinal use by the community. They have been systematically targeted and violently evicted from Embobut forest, their ancestral home by the Kenyan Forest Service guards (KFS) as part of the government's conservation efforts. 

Advocacy Officer at the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders from March 2020 to present

• Develop and lead the implementation of the Defenders Coalition advocacy strategy and yearly implementation plan.
• Offer technical analysis, and background research while leading monitoring and research of policies and practices, Coalition’s core programs, including multilateral, governmental, philanthropic, non-governmental, and industrial policies.
• Conduct outreach with designated priority targets, in particular priority countries, NGOs, and civil society stakeholders.
• Identify, engage and maintain working relationships with partners (Civil Society, Government, NGOs, Research Actors, etc.) for the advancement of the Coalition’s mission.
• Participate in internal and external advocacy meetings.
• Monitor and report on advocacy progress against targets while advising on intervention to address the situation of Indigenous persons and youth HRDs.
• Work in collaboration with colleagues in fundraising, conceptualization and implementation of new projects.

Protection intern at the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders from October 2019  to February 2020

• Monitor and report on cases touching on Indigenous Communities and Indigenous Human Right Defenders and activists through the development of weekly trend analysis.
• Plan and implement the #ClimbforJustice campaign.
• Participate and represent NCHRD-K in meetings and partner activities.
• Assist in administrative functions

Human Rights Defender Volunteer at Sengwer of Embobut CBO from January 2019 to October 2019

• Assist with organising workshops, meetings, and working group meetings and assist in communication to participants, production, and dissemination of agendas, and other materials needed.
• Establish capacity-building periodic meetings for members on advocacy, needs assessment, and protection issues.
• Work on updating training material, modules, and tools; develop facilitation guides, etc. as requested.
• Develop relevant work plans (weekly, monthly, & quarterly)
• Provide timely comprehensive reports

Bachelor of Journalism and Mass Communication, 2015 at  Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology 

Trainings received 

• Security Management Training (Physical and Digital) – June 2022
• Monitoring, Documentation, and Reporting of Human Rights Violations during elections Trainer of Trainers  (ToT) Training – April 2022
• Enhancing Advocacy and Leadership Skills Training for Indigenous Women in the (Indigenous Women Global Leadership Skills IWGLS2020 Fellow) – February To April 2020
• Monitoring, Documentation and Reporting on Human Rights Issues – November 2019
• Security Management Training (Physical and Digital) For Indigenous People – April 2019
• Computer Application Packages Training, Nehema Institute of Science and Technology, 2015