Roseline is an award-winning advocate for widows, and a campaigner for cultural, social and policy change around the inequalities and stigma that widows face. Learn more about Roseline's work here.
She was widowed aged 32, when her husband was killed in post-election violence. Like many Kenyan women, she had to face “sexual cleansing” in order to be able to return to day-to-day life. In 2008, she founded the Rona Foundation, an acclaimed non-profit organisation that supports and champions the rights of widows across Kenya. It offers social, economic and leadership training to widows and schoolgirls, and also works with male champions to change harmful traditional practices around widowhood.
Roseline is a Commissioned Expert with Kenya’s Ministry of Labour and Social Services and has served as a widows’ rights consultant for numerous local, national and global civil organisations. She is a 2021 Aspen New Voices Fellow and a global leader with Modern Widows Club (USA).
In 2021, she addressed the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women CSW65 conference, in which she called for global action on the rights of widows during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond, and spoke to a Cornell Law School audience on the role of activism in transformative lawmaking. She was invited to address the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) at the 38th Human Rights Council session in 2018, and that same year she spoke via video link on “The Forgotten Plight of Women of All Ages – How Europe can Impact” to a session of the European Parliament in Brussels.
Roseline holds a non-graduate degree in public relations and communication from Daystar University, a diploma in printing and graphic design from the Technical University of Kenya, and a diploma in project management and innovation.
Having lived through ostracisation, I know first-hand of abuse, stigma and rejection. Women like me, culturally, have no value except humiliating names, and because we are a society ruled by culture, culture enslaves even the educated. Widows therefore remain invisible, afraid, and with no support or opportunities. They endure daily harmful cultural practices and too often live in abject poverty. There are more than four million widows in Kenya seeking recognition, acceptance, protection and resource allocation, and I believe there is space for innovation, creativity and empowerment for the millions of rural widows left behind.Roseline Orwa