Vice Chairperson for Policy and Advocacy, Commonwealth Youth Council; Founder, SEMA; Programs Director, Brydges Centre
Nafula Wafula is the Vice Chairperson for Policy and Advocacy at the Commonwealth Youth Council and founder of SEMA, a youth-targeted initiative combatting female genital mutilation in Kenya. She is also the programs director at Brydges Centre, an organization that provides child rescue and protection services, education, and economic empowerment to at-risk youth and out-of-school girls. She currently leads the Brydges Centre’s skills development program, which has successfully trained 227 young people in vocational, tech, entrepreneurship, and employability skills.
She co-founded the Tunawiri-Grassroots Gender Justice Network to support grassroots organizations working for gender and social justice in Kenya. She serves as an executive committee member of the Commonwealth Businesswomen Network and a board member of Siasa Place, a youth-serving organization focused on meaningful youth engagement and participation in political leadership, as well as the Global Network of Women’s Shelters. She also serves on the board of Kenya’s National Employment Authority, and she acts as a consultant in the areas of gender mainstreaming, gender-based violence prevention and intervention, sexual reproductive health and rights, advocacy, effective campaigning, organizational strengthening, and meaningful youth engagement.
Nafula is a 2019 Future Leaders Connect winner, a Laureate Global Fellow (2015), an East Africa Acumen Fellow (2015), a Spark Kenya Changemaker (2015), and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society. She is also a founding member of the Commonwealth Youth, Gender and Equality Network (CYGEN) on which she previously served as an executive member addressing early and child marriage, and a member of the committee addressing issues affecting youth transitioning from education to employment. She holds a law degree from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.
