Elizabeth Shoyemi (Nigerian)
Elizabeth Shoyemi’s interest in Public Health started at a very early age at 15 when she was trained as a Reproductive Health Peer Educator. She is a Microbiologist by training; professionally she has developed a specialty in operational research, development, implementation and management of sexual reproductive health programs for young people, persons with disabilities and key populations. She works with Population Council as Program Coordinator, HIV. Before joining Population Council in 2011, she worked at the Nigeria Youth Aid Programme (NYAP) and Delta Women NGOs.

Olubunmi Shonde (Nigerian)
Since graduation has been involved in developmental work, she is a trained counselor,, an HIV/AIDS peer educator, youth advocate, advocate on women and girls issues.  Recently she has been involved in governance and democracy accountability at the Local government level. She has co-edited publications on issues of LGA accountability. She is a passionate, dedicated person, loves to read, met people and places. Obtained a bachelor degree in Science Education from the University of Nigeria Nsukka, a master’s degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Lagos Nigeria.

Uta Ito Eke (Nigerian)
Uta works with Girl’s Power Initiative (GPI) as a facilitator/Assistant Program Officer. She assists in planning for and executing activities centered on empowering adolescent girls (from 10-18 years) for social action through sexuality, human right, life management and leadership skills from a gender perspective. She also plans and facilitates weekly lessons with the girls on issues mentioned above. She has a BSc. in Botany.

Festus Ibanda Kisa (Kenyan)
Festus Ibanda Kisa is a sexual and gender minorities  activist and sexual reproductive health and rights advocate in Q-Initiative Eldoret, and has been a program coordinator since 2013, with a background of social work, HIV testing and counseling, Human Rights for Sexual Minorities. He is passionate about equality and nondiscrimination, increased awareness on the sexual reproductive health and rights of lesbians, gays and bisexual minorities, protection and upholding of the human rights of sexual and gender minorities, creation of safe social spaces for sexual minorities and basically changing the narrative of sexual and gender minorities (from that of victims and oppressed to dignified citizens involved in nation building). He is interested in fashion and style, photography, travelling and wine.

On SLDF 2015: The discovery that every campaign, every advocacy message that has ever been crafted is politically motivated, is geared towards a particular end. Liberally determined by the powers that be and that it can be negative or positive.

Princewill Echebiri (Nigerian)
Princewill is a trained Counselor, Healthcare Provider and human rights advocate with years of experiences in the area of HIV prevention programming for most at risk population, with wide-ranging skills on gender-sensitive programming, sexuality education, community mobilization, management, grassroots intervention, informatics and training facilitation. He speaks English, French, Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba languages. He has a Bachelor of Technology Degree in Biology (Edu) from the University of Technology Minna, Niger State, Nigeria, and Diploma in Business Administration from University of Abuja, Nigeria.

Olufunke Olasode (Nigerian)
Olufunke Olasode has more than 3 years experience developing social solutions and projects towards promoting self discovery and entrepreneurship amongst the Nigerian youths by providing Mentorship, Skill development and Business education. She is a trained MDGs facilitator and has helped implement key educational and health projects fostering the fulfillments of MDGs. She is passionate and actively engaged in the subject of political leadership and good governance. Olufunke is a fellow of the Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative (CYFI), United States Consulate, Nigeria.

Don Catherine (Kenyan)
Don Catherine is a human right defender who works for Nyanza Rift Valley and Western Kenya LGBTI coalition, an organization that work for the right of sexual minority as a Research and documentation officer. She holds a Bachelor’s of arts in development studies and a certificate in monitoring and evaluation. She has also worked as a youth outreach mobilizer for HIVOS and has worked as a research assistant for FHI360, International Centre for Reproductive Health, Child Fund Kenya, KEMRI-FACES and HelpAge International. She is very passionate on gender and minority issues.

Ayodele Dorcas Fajemibola (Nigerian)
Ayodele Dorcas is a social worker and researcher. She has a vast working experience in teaching and humanitarian services. She currently works at Action Health Incorporated as the program manager on the ENGINE project founded by DFID UK and Coca-Cola UK. She is also a chief consultant at Edu-Consult which is involved in capacity building of teachers and providing advisory and supervisory services to both public and private schools. She has a background in Sociology and Research from University of Lagos Nigeria.

Somefun Esther Oluwatosin (Nigerian)
Somefun Esther is a research fellow and a public health physician in training. She has been working vastly in the areas of Adult and Paediatric HIV medicine, Human sexuality and Adolescent sexual and reproductive health for the past nine years. She has also conducted research and published papers in the areas of HIV, Sexual orientation and Adolescent sexual and reproductive health. She also works with Action Health Incorporated technical support at the Adolescent and Youth friendly clinic and at Evexuas Concept an NGO on the Skill Outreach Programme for women and children. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine and Surgery (2003) and a Masters in Public Health (2007) at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Nigeria. She is currently pursuing a fellowship in Public Health at the facility of Public at both the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria and at the West African College of Physicians.

Deusdedit Kiriisa Kampala (Uganda)
Deusdedit is a human rights defender with over 6 years’ experience in non-profit. He holds a diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication from Makerere Institute for Social development, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Social work and Social administration from Makerere University. Deusdedit works as the Communications officer at Triumph Bi East Africa, Uganda, creating visibility and awareness of LGBT persons with emphasis on bisexual men and women in Uganda. As a human rights defender, Deusdedit does field reporting with voices of Abasiyazzi which is a queer media project under sexual minorities Uganda. He advocates for Gender Sensitive Programmes, Sexual Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights. While serving as an intern at UHAI-EASHRI in Nairobi-Kenya, Deusdedit involved in grant analysis, proposal writing and reporting. Deusdedit is passionate about LGBT persons, Sex workers, women and youth programming. He believes in Human rights and Justice for all people.

Cynthia Chielotam Ibe (Nigerian)
Cynthia Ibe is a graduate of Law (LLB) from University of Lagos (Unilag) Akoka Yaba and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2013 a member of FIDA Lagos branch (International Federation of Women Lawyers). She has been involved in mentoring young ladies towards career advancement, counseling women going through domestic violence. Currently she is involved in empowering women into active participation in Politics and Entrepreneurship, Project management and Sexuality education. She loves to learn new skills and meet new people.

Star Rugori (Burundi)
Star Rugori is a passionate human rights advocates in the areas of civic and political rights & sexual health and rights programming for most at risk population, with wide-ranging skills on advocacy programming, movement building, fundraising and training facilitation. He has a bachelor of Political Economy from the University of Burundi.

Lyons Ikinya Njenga (Kenya)
Lyons Njenga is a young, curious and self- driven human rights lawyer and fashion entrepreneur. He is passionate about rights and Equality, human rights advocacy, politics and citizen action around democracy and political accountability. As an entrepreneur he has managed a three-year-old fashion enterprise, Lyons Humphrey Clothing, which is in its early debut to business. Recently graduated from Law School and currently worked at KHRC, he has developed a strong interest in advocating for Women, LGBTI, Citizenship and Refugee rights and the promotion of human rights and democracy. He is currently a consultant for Youth Movement for Change, a Tanzanian organization working on LGBTI issues. He also has strong interest in research and writing in rights and Equality issues and has done articles around minority group rights.

Ngina Ndolo (Kenya)
Ngina Ndolo is a queer, feminist woman with a commitment to human rights and social justice for all people. She is an Office Manager, and the Admin Assistant at UHAI - the East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative, an African LGBTI and sex worker activist fund. She has a Bachelors Degree in Commerce: - with a passion for and tremendous skills in administrative processes and over 5 years experience in office management, Procurement, Human resources management, leadership and finance.

The 2015 SLDF fellowship has taught me that we all have struggles and they are interconnected in one way or the other. Also when looking at discourses, we should remember that they are all politically motivated and we need to understand what agenda is being addressed.