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I recently came across the story of a young African-American man, Charles Johnson IV, who is fighting for legislation to increase the quality of health care to reduce maternal mortality among African-American women. His own wife died after delivering a healthy baby via caesarean section. She bled to death because doctors at a very prestigious hospital in the U.S. ignored her haemorrhaging for several hours. Her name was Kira Dixon Johnson. She was very well educated and reasonably well-off and yet she became another statistic. In America, African-American women are 243% more likely to die to child-birth than their white American colleagues. Even wealthy, educated African-American women are still more likely to die in child-birth than white women.

2010 Tutu Fellow Robtel Neajai Pailey was celebrated as one of two winners of the 3rd annual International Anti-Corruption Excellence (ACE) Awards, in the Anti-Corruption Academic Research And Education category. The ceremony took place at the Putrajaya International Convention Center in Malaysia, on December 7th, 2018.

The award was established to shine a light on the fight against corruption across the world. Pailey's position has long been that in the fight against corruption, it is vital to begin educating the next generation as early as possible, and it was part of why she wrote children's books about the subject, Gbagba and Jaadeh.  Only eight winners were recognised at the event.

2018 Tutu Fellow Alice Namuli partnered with the British Council of Uganda to collaborate on an event titled: Accountable Leadership - a tool for promoting good governance in Uganda for sustainable development.  It comprised a panel that included a Justice Kenneth Kakuru, a judge in the Appeal Court; Asan Kasingye, the Assistant Inspector General of Police; Francis Gimara, a partner in a Kampala law firm; and Perry Aritua, the Executive Director of the Women's Democracy Network.  Alice moderated the panel, which was sponsored by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK and held in Kampala on 6 December. 

She said that the discussion was on how to learn to raise personal accountability in our work, family and communities to better hold leaders accountable.

2013 Tutu Fellow Peggy-Sue Khumalo has been appointed as the new chief executive for Standard Bank's Wealth South Africa Division.  She leaves Investec, where she's been for much of her career, to join Standard Bank in February.  She will be responsible for the South African operations of Standard Bank's wealth business, which includes short and long-term insurance, asset management, pension fund operations, and fiduciary services.  The division serves high net-worth individuals, corporate clients, and commercial and retail clients. It has a footprint in a number of other Sub-Saharan Africa countries as well as international offices in London, Jersey, the Isle of Man and Mauritius and the sum Peggy-Sue will be responsible for will total around R175 billion in earnings.

There is always an outcry when a child gets raped, except of course in Zambia we do not call it rape. We euphemistically call it “defilement” because an innocent child’s virtue has seemingly been destroyed. No one can fathom that a child would ever want to be raped, and when it happens, no one blames them for it.

But when it comes to women, it is a different story. It becomes about sex. In normal circumstances, sex between adults is consensual or something that women submit to.

2013 Tutu Fellow Nkuli Bogopa raised R99,000.00 for the children’s orchestra at St. Matthews School in Soweto, all in a space of two weeks.  On 4 November 2018, thanks to Nkuli's organizing skills and working closely with Sister Berchmans of the Catholic Sisters of Mercy,  the children performed at the Houghton Golf Club.  It was an unforgettable experience for both the children and the audience.

Nkuli says that this came about from an idea she had when she reached a birthday milestone.

Tutu Fellows Lynette Ntuli, Natalie Jabangwe, Ada Osakwe and Bright Simons have been selected for the Choiseul Africa 100 list of laureates for 2018.

Through an annual study that was independently carried out over several months by the Institut Choiseul, Choiseul 100 Africa – the Economic Leaders for Tomorrow, honors those exceptional entrepreneurs who contribute to the renewing of the African economic governance. It identifies and ranks young African leaders of 40 years old and below. 

The identification and ranking process took weighted criteria into account that included reputation, background and skills, influence networks, potential, and leadership.

A mutiny is occurring in the notorious prison in South Sudan called Blue House, where people are being detained without trial.  The prison is also where 2016 Tutu Fellow and peace activist, Peter Biar Ajak, has been held since the end of July 2018.  He has yet to be charged.  News sources say about 200 detainees broke into a weapons store in the prison and are holding two guards.  They are demanding the government provide prisoners with due process. 

The detention centre called Blue House is at the headquarters of the National Security Service in South Sudan's capital, Juba.  A national security service statement released to the media says the standoff began when a prisoner, Keribino Wol, overpowered a guard and seized his weapon. 

2017 Tutu Fellow John-Allen Namu has released a documentary exposing the complicity of individuals in the Kenyan and Ugandan elite in illicit financial flows in support of South Sudan's warlords. John-Allen is an award-winning investigative journalist and the co-founder of Africa Uncensored.

The powerful three-part documentary titled, The Profiteers, is an expose of how South Sudan warlords plunder public resources to live in opulence in Nairobi while ordinary South Sudanese live in abject poverty. The money looted from Sudan's public coffers is then siphoned off to Kenya and Uganda through banking institutions where the cartels are laundering it by investing in other businesses. 

The 2014 Tutu Fellow and chief architect at Makeka Design Lab, Mokena Makeka, has led a design vision and consortium to win a bid to design a new precinct for Nelson Mandela Bay.  Nelson Mandela Bay is an area in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth in South Africa's Eastern Cape.  The project is to redevelop the area and simultaneously honour Madiba’s contribution to South Africa, as well as elevate the city’s status as a hub for socio-economic transformation, tourism and employment opportunities.

The city hosted a competition open to all South Africans to submit their ideas, but it was Mokena's Nelson Mandela Bay Tower of Light concept that ultimately won.

2008 Tutu Fellow Hopewell Chin’ono has premiered his new documentary film titled State of Mind on mental illness in Zimbabwe in Harare. The film by the award-winning Zimbabwean journalist and documentary filmmaker highlights an untold story of how Zimbabweans address mental illness in their communities.  The premiere opened to a packed auditorium and included the guest of honor, the minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Dr Sekai Nzenza.  When it finished, Hopewell received a standing ovation from an emotional audience for the documentary.

2014 Tutu Fellow Linda Kasonde reflects on her own experiences shattering the glass ceiling in the legal profession in this TEDx talk in Lusaka.  In it, she asks "where are the women?"  Linda shares her journey to leadership, while challenging other women to fulfil their leadership potential.  Linda Kasonde was the first female President of the Law Association of Zambia and is now a partner in a leading Zambian law firm. Leadership in itself is difficult; but when power structures - like the glass ceiling women face - place obstacles in your path, it is that much more difficult.

2014 Tutu Fellow, lawyer, and activist, Linda Kasonde, is spearheading a social media campaign against sexual bullying, particularly against women in politics. The campaign hashtag is #StandUpToBullying.

The cyber bullying campaign initially arose from an incident where the Zambian Minister of Information was attacked online by political party cadres within her party, because of a public pronouncement that she had made. Civil society quickly issued a statement condemning the remarks and started a social media campaign under the hashtag #IStandWithHer, condemning the harassment, particularly the sexual harassment of women politicians.

2017 Tutu Fellow Dr. William Mwiti has been appointed to the Executive Leadership Committee of the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) for the EMEA Region. MAPS is the premiere non-profit global society of Medical Affairs professionals across a spectrum of fields, experience, and locales.

The Executive Leadership Committee is responsible for ensuring the Vision and Mission of MAPS is achieved in all the society’s initiatives in the geographical region comprised of Europe, including the United Kingdom, Middle East and Africa. In his role, William will be directly involved in setting up an Africa Chapter.

2012 Tutu Fellow, and representative of the All Progressive Congress(APC) in Nigeria, Elijah Onyeagba, has secured his party’s ticket to contest in the general elections as Member of Parliament representing Anaocha/Njikoka/Dunukofia Federal Constituency.

Elijah is an Economist by training and has an MBA in Finance with over seventeen years’ experience in commercial, corporate, retail, mortgage banking, real estate, research, marketing and leadership. He is an expert in the structuring and advisory on construction finance deals with specialty in residential/affordable housing projects. He is currently the CEO of Countrywide Housing Company (CHC).