Fungai Chirongoma is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in Theology/Religious Studies at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Her dissertation will examine the interventions of faith based organizations in addressing violence against women in Cape Town. To enhance her experience, she is volunteering at Ihata Shelter for Abused Women. She is 27 year old whose birthplace is Zimbabwe where she grew up with a single mother who worked hard ensure her children received education despite economic hardships in Zimbabwe. Her future goal is establishing a shelter for abused women in Zimbabwe impact the lives of women through addressing the scourge of violence.
Jane Chinyere Ezirigwe
Jane Ezirigwe is pursuing a PhD in Public law at the University of Cape Town. Her home country is Nigeria where she grew up in a family of six. She joined the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies where she is teaching, engaging in research, the publication of research findings and policy formulation. Jane is a published author who is working with the local NGO on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence - Women Aid Collective (WACOL). After her studies, she intend to continue to engage the media and policy actors on these issues to ensure that the new laws do not also discriminate against women, as evident in the new laws made in Benue and Taraba states.
Joanna Daniela Glanville
Joanna Glanville from South Africa, is pursuing a Masters in Theatre Making and Scenography at the University of Cape Town. After having experienced first-hand the transformative healing power of art as therapy, Joanna is passionate about using film and theatre to facilitate conversations about taboo subjects. Joanna has previously used creative facilitation as a tool to discuss and confront subjects such as, healthy sexual practices, self-esteem and gender-based-violence. Her current research seeks to explore how scenography (set design, prop making, etc) can be used as a means for creative facilitation or trauma rehabilitation. For those whose pain is still too acute for on-stage performance, scenography offers an interesting, behind the scenes, alternative to role-playing drama therapies.
“The power is in transferring a painful inner landscape outside of yourself; where you can manipulate and respond to it […] allowing the spaces [you are] creating to absorb all of [your] trauma …so it doesn’t gnaw at the inside of your body.”
Stella Elikplim Lawerteh
Stella Lawareth is a 2020 South Africa Program grantee and master’s student in Public Health at the University of Cape Town. Stella is Ghanaian and is the female physiotherapist to be commissioned as an officer in Ghana. She works as a pediatric physical therapist at a military hospital, where she trains the parents and caregivers of children living with disabilities and runs a clubfoot clinic. She is currently on leave to develop low-cost assessment tools to measure physical fitness of children living in low-income urban areas in Ghana. During postgraduate studies in South Africa, she became acutely aware of the gap in the standards of physical therapy being applied in the two countries. She became passionate about raising the level of physical fitness of Ghanaian children and helping turn around the growing incidence of non- communicable diseases linked to their being obese or overweight. Through her study she has already reached several hundred children and is looking to scale up significantly by partnering with schools once she completes her master’s. Stella volunteers as an exercise instructor for pregnant women, as well as with a non-governmental organization that treats children with clubfoot.
Faatima Omarjee Ebrahim
Fatima Ebrahim is a 2020 South Africa Program grantee. She is pursuing a Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy at the University of Cape Town. Faatima Ebrahim is South African and a clinical occupational therapist with 20 years’ experience serving the disabled community primarily in pediatric practice, and in a public health managerial capacity. Having a special needs child opened her eyes to the heavy burden on - almost exclusively female – caregivers, and radically changed her views on the role of the therapist. Ebrahim returned to university to better equip herself to research and advocate for caregiver engagement in therapy, as well as promoting inclusive communities, where those with disabilities can integrate and thrive, in collaboration with relevant NPOs.
“I grew up in apartheid South Africa. It was only in my first year at university that I was exposed to other cultures and communities within my own country. My parenting journey of a child with special needs has been a significant influence on the way I view my work. My own lived experiences of discrimination have empowered me to own my identity, and created a yearning for me to create and build the capacity of other women and children.”
