Join The Akili Dada Community

We nurture a cadre of young women leaders at various decision-making levels and across sectors committed to participating in and building movements that provide spaces for young women to thrive. Curated as intensive workshops, we offer young women the opportunity to gain core transformative feminist leadership skills, feminist mentorship, and the opportunity to implement social action projects of their own choice.

We guide and facilitate the conceptualization and implementation of Social Action Projects by young women in keeping with our overarching goal of developing transformative feminist leadership. These Social Action Projects foster capacity building, awareness creation, social entrepreneurship, and the use of creative and performing arts implemented during the two-year project cycle.

We leverage our networks and technical expertise to identify external opportunities and assessments for organizational development that engage young women and women-led organizations to address their priority areas reflecting on their institutions’ strengths and identifying areas that require development.

Due to high risk of kidnapping concerns for the girls pictured- that was expressed to me by Akili Dada, the girls CANNOT be publicly identified by name, age or location.] Being part of Akili Dada means maintaining a certain grade point average. Akili Dada team members visit the scholars in their programs once a month or more to aid the girls if they need help or are falling behind, but the girls are all very ambitious and truly have become active members in their program and at their school. The scholars of Akili Dada in Kilifi, Kenya.

Ensuring that all girls and young women access education is a basic human right, a global development priority, and a strategic priority for Akili Dada. The Angaza scholarship is a multi-year comprehensive high school scholarship awarded to high-performing girls from Kenya’s rural and low-income communities. Our program additionally ensures that girls and young women have the space to dream and discover their innate potential — setting them up for personal and professional success.

We create a space through which girls and young women can explore and define their career goals while equipping them with skills to help vision and navigate career progression. We curate immersive experiential experiences such as outdoor learning experiences, career symposiums, exposing girls to their desired career context thus enabling them to make informed decisions about their futures.

To ensure their transition into institutions of higher learning, Angaza participants are also prepared to access education in higher learning institutions across Africa and beyond. Through intensive skills training, and active community engagement, high school graduates are prepared for the transition with increased efficacy and experience. This gives them a competitive edge to acquire post-high school scholarships and personal development opportunities across the world.

The Manyatta Homeschooling program targets girls and young women of school-going age but out-of-school between the ages of 15 and 25 years from Samburu County in Kenya. Girls and young women from this region continue to face gender barriers contributing to their poor educational attainment and general life outcomes rooted in extreme poverty, pervasive patriarchal socio-cultural practices, poor infrastructure, and a general lack of resources to support access to essential social services, putting them most at risk.

Through its quest to improve literacy levels in the ASAL regions, we aim to ensure out-of-school girls and young women access basic non-formal education that enhances their livelihood and increases literacy rates amongst the target group - out-of-school girls in Samburu County. The program aims to create this pathway by providing foundational numeracy and literacy skills that would allow for the transition to the formal education system, providing civic education focused on increasing girls’ knowledge, awareness, and understanding of girls and human rights with a sharp focus on the right to education and giving transferable skills training to equip them with basic entrepreneurial, reproductive, and mental health resources enabling them to make informed choices about their lives.

We convene girls for leadership and life skills intensives that have been carefully designed to empower girls to take advantage of opportunities as well as navigate and overcome challenges facing them today. We equip them with age-appropriate sexual and reproductive health rights information, girls’ rights education as well complementary, academic, and life skills. Adopting creative and innovative approaches, we encourage girls to identify and explore their leadership styles while creating opportunities that enable them to apply them to real-life situations.

We connect girls and young women to a powerful network of female mentors and role models who challenge and inspire girls to step out of their comfort zones and aspire to achieve their highest potential. We purposefully leverage African Feminist Mentorship practices, creating safe spaces and platforms for meaningful engagement that foster intergenerational cross-learning and sisterhood. Through mentorship, girls and young women access an added layer of supportive networks that equip girls with the skills to navigate high school, university, and beyond.

We know that the people in your life play a critical role in helping you achieve your personal and professional goals. As such we convene and build the capacity of gatekeepers — educators, mentors, community leaders, and parents — in creating a supportive network for girls. We organize these convenings as both learning and advocacy spaces where cross-cutting and emerging issues affecting girls are addressed.

Herstory

Our Herstory

In 2005, Dr. Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg established Akili Dada, driven by the profound belief in the power of education and leadership to uplift women from underprivileged backgrounds in Africa. Recognizing the hurdles these women faced in accessing education and leadership opportunities, Dr. Kamau-Rutenberg devised a multifaceted approach, encompassing scholarships, mentoring, and leadership training, aiming to empower these young women and equip them with the necessary tools to excel in leadership roles.

A year into this endeavor, Dr. Kamau-Rutenberg and her husband, Isaac, demonstrated their unwavering commitment by making a personal financial investment, enabling Akili Dada to provide scholarships to disadvantaged girls in Kenya. To date, their efforts have borne fruit, with Akili Dada granting 209 scholarships, thus empowering girls to pursue education at both high school and tertiary levels around the world. Dr. Kamau-Rutenberg’s personal narrative is deeply intertwined with Akili Dada’s mission.

“I moved from Nairobi to Denver at age 14 with a sense of rooted belonging in the African continent. Driven by deep gratitude and a joyful obligation, I started Akili Dada in 2005 as a way to leverage my unique position on the cusp of two continents and to pay it forward. From painful personal experience, I have insight into African women’s challenges in the quest for education as well as the difference that thoughtfully structured scholarships, compassionate mentoring, and purposeful leadership training can make.”

Akili Dada stands today as a testament to Dr. Kamau-Rutenberg’s vision. The organization, shaped by the lived experiences of the women within it and the collaborative efforts of scholars, activists, and community leaders, is dedicated to addressing the unique needs of African girls and young women. Through its robust support network, Akili Dada continues its commitment to nurturing transformative leaders and fostering lasting, positive change for future generations.

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