RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW II: Youth Executive Board (YEB) Members

The RHRN2 program promotes meaningful participation of adolescents and young people in all their diversity in SRHR programming in Kenya. In this approach, the program has established and positioned the Youth Executive Board (YEB) at the apex of its governance structure to ensure that the young people’s voices are heard and considered in the design, delivery, and implementation of the SRHR programs.

The YEB is composed of 9 young people aged 18-23 years drawn from Kisumu, Nairobi, and Mombasa Counties. The members of the board are competitively recruited through a rigorous process that involves call for application, interviews, and orientation to ensure the most appropriate balance of gender, region, inclusivity and diversity in representation. The program provides the YEB an opportunity to shadow learn and develop relevant practical skills and competencies; role model in programme work while creating opportunities for themselves for growth in skills and competencies in selected areas such as presentation skills in advocacy; and obtain practical on-the job training in varied areas including SRH education, social media advocacy, communication, writing. This is to enable them to grow and develop the requisite competencies necessary in the implementation of SRHR programs for young people in all their diversity.

The YEB is fully involved in the annual work planning processes to ensure the activities are aligned to the needs of young people; attend the activities of the country partners and all capacity strengthening workshops of the coalition; individually and collectively create SRHR and advocacy content during international SRHR days.

The functions of the YEB are:

  • Provide strategic advice to coalition members on meaningful youth engagement of youth-led development on issues of concern to young people focused on sexual & reproductive health and rights.
  • Advise the National Steering Committee on the development and dissemination of best practices to promote the engagement of youth in matters that relate to the effective operation and improvement of the platform’s strategy on mainstreaming youth participation in SRHR advocacy.
  • Advocate for the inclusion of young people in different levels of decision-making during project implementation.
  • Support the implementation of the youth-led interventions across the platform.
  • Represent and facilitate youth input at local, national, and international gatherings and share experiences from such gatherings with other young people to encourage youth involvement in the decision-making processes in their regions.
  • Provide feedback for relevant policy formulation and programming on issues affecting young people
  • Promote youth participation and input in RHRN II work through organizing youth events on youth issues, and informing and mobilizing young people to participate in RHRN II activities.
  • Support the planning, organizing, and hosting of youth workshops as and when required.
  • Participate in youth surveys and engage with regional youth networks on issues affecting adolescents and young people and make recommendations to Right Here Right Now II to guide the development of strategies, policies and programmes.
  • Contribute to the Adolescent Sexual & Reproductive Health and Rights, Comprehensive Sexuality Education advocacy and publications by:
    • Contributing articles on urban youth issues and concerns
    • Encouraging youth and youth-led organizations in their regions to document and share their experiences and lessons learnt, towards the development of RHRN II knowledge based on youth-led development best practices, tools and publications.
  • To encourage and support effective and meaningful participation of young people in youth-led development initiatives and programmes to strengthen RHRN II response to policy and programme development for
    adolescents and young people in Kenya.
  • Support RHRN II with the design and implementation of youth platforms and sustainable partnerships by
    reviewing and discussing topics of interest and providing input into the conference sessions and activities.
  • Advocate for youth-friendly policies and programmes meant to advance the sexual reproductive health and rights of adolescents and young people.

Meet The Team

Meet the Youth Executive Board (YEB) Members

YEB Chairperson

Juma Richie

Juma Richie preference name Zurih is 23years old and gender non binary who goes by the pronouns they, them and others. Zurih is a final year student at Embu University pursuing Bachelors in Economics. They have worked with Ishtar MSM as a peer educator for the past three years with diverse community members and people from diverse professional settings has made them earn knowledge and confidence in client approach, communication and also negotiation.

Zurih is an enthusiastic, self-driven individual who possess excellent time keeping skills,
flexibility and reliability. They term themselves as a hardworking person who is responsible and self-motivated. They are a team player and adaptable to challenging situations, able to work well both in a team environment as well as using my own initiative. Zurih is currently a youth advocate on Sexual Reproductive Health Rights under the Center of Study of Adolescents (CSA) trained on Budget Advocacy and Youth Community Rovers and a member of the Youth Executive Board Representing Nairobi County.
YEB Secretary

Ramwaka Nyadzuwa Kathryne

Ramwaka is a young woman who is very passionate about sexual reproductive health and rights. She is a student at the University of Nairobi taking bachelors in veterinary medicine and surgery and a former vice chair of the University of Nairobi Students’ Association and the current Women Students Welfare Association chairperson in her campus (College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences). Ramwaka is also a graduate of the Young African Leadership Initiative cohort on civic leadership.

Ramwaka is also a certified Value Clarification and Attitude Transformation Trainer of
Trainees for sexual reproductive health. In another capacity, she is part of the board and Vice President at Usawa youth reproductive Health Centre in Ngong, Kenya. Some of the achievements she had made in the sexual reproductive health field are such as organizing the Youth Health Organization Kenya youth activities as well as being part of the project liaison in big ideas 3 by Ipas African Alliance and part of the team that created the Kenyan website called Nimechanuka.
YEB Member

Hawah Maria

Hawah Maria is an open-minded, dedicated, and results-oriented young leader with a wealth of skills and expertise in the following broad-based competencies: leadership and governance, mentorship, networking, advocacy, and mobilization as well as event organizing. She is also a committed and proactive team leader who has worked effectively in multiple and complex projects both in local and international environments.
Currently, she is enrolled in Maseno University in the School of Agriculture, Food Security, and Environment pursuing her Bachelors in Environmental Science with Information Technologies. She served as the Treasure in the Student Union of Maseno University (SOMU) 018/019 where she handled matters around the environment and health of students.

Hawah is a passionate youth advocate with four years of experience in Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). She has been involved in the designing, implementation, and evaluation of different programs and activities. She is also part of the CSE task force in the Centre for the Study of Adolescents. Hawah, specializes in contraception uptake among young people, through advocacy, online and offline campaigns. She has been involved in projects that ensure her specialty is maximized and currently, she is part of T-Safe. Which is a project by Triggerise that ensures that young people access free quality contraceptives with or without mobile phone access by incorporating the use of Tiko cards in the Western part of Kenya covering, Eldoret, Kitale, Kakamega, Kisumu, Kisii, and Kericho.
I strongly believe every young person regardless of age, gender conformity, and sexual orientation should have access to appropriate reproductive health information and services.
YEB Member

Lenox Nyabuti Nyambaka

Lenox is the founder and executive director of Mental Health Solutions Kenya. He is also a Biotechnology student at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology interested in leadership, general health advocacy, research, videography, photography, script writing and acting but also equipped with a strong expertise in organizational development and result-based management.

Lenox has worked with NGOs, CBOs and Governments to build capacity in Adolescents and youth Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights, women empowerment, gender equality,
HIV/Aids and its associated stigma reduction, Psychological counseling and other associated activities aimed at promoting community health.
YEB Member

Elvis Mwinyi Mbitsi

Elvis is a youth Executive Board (YEB) member for the Right Here Right Now II (RHRN II) Program representing Mombasa County as well as youth champion advocating for sexual and reproductive health rights. He also graduated with a bachelor of science in community health and development. Since his graduation, Elvis had the urge to work with adolescents and young people sexual and reproductive health rights.

He started his volunteer ship program with Epic youth organization-CBO which collaborated with Reproductive Health Network Kenya (RHNK) to offer sexual and reproductive health youth friendly services to adolescents and young people. Elvis is interested in working with all diverse people; i.e. people with disability (PWD), LGBTQ persons, and People living with HIV/AIDS. Above all, he has other skills and experience on v-logging, content creating, social media advocacy and Graphics and design.
YEB Representative

Angellah Praygod Mochawa

Ms. Angellah Praygod Mochawa alias Firdhaus is one of the Young Leaders and Advocate of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and SRHR. She's a passionate young Kenyan leader who has been tirelessly engaging in Development Programs that support GBV, Education and Leadership for Adolescents and Young People (AYP) so that they can make informed decisions on matters related to their health and livelihood. She spends her free time
on Volunteering at the Kenya Red Cross Society (Mombasa) & Mombasa County GBV Situation Room.

Ms. Angellah has also done Leadership and Management with the UBUNTU LEADERSHIP
ACADEMIA Responsible Leadership on Transparency and Good Governance. She is the cofounder for their Community Based Organization (HER NARRATIVE)
YEB Member

Barbara Shahnen

Barbara is a youth advocate for Network for Adolescence and Youths of Africa Kenya (NAYA-K), she advocates for the implementation of policies and legislation for SRHR at national and community level. Barbara also does budget advocacy by analyzing the county health budgets,
Annual Development Plans and also taking part in the public participation forums.

She has undergone trainings on budget advocacy, Regional and international mechanism, value clarification and attitude transformation, adult youth led partnership, youth adult led partnership, adult youth partnership, and meaningful youth participation. Barbara is also an accountant by profession.