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• Female

• Female

Shamsa Abubakar Fadhil, popularly known as Mama Shamsa among the youth she works with, works in the coastal Mombasa regional of Kenya, ensuring structured involvement of youth in peace building efforts. Triggered by widespread criminal activities in Mombasa involving over juvenile 200 gangs, she pioneered an intense campaign to reform affected youth. This quickly evolved into a multi-sectoral engagement involving Religious Leaders, district peace and security committee members, government administration officials and the police. Established in 2019, this campaign has contributed to the transformation of over 1000 youths who have opted out of criminal life and are now peace ambassadors. This has subsequently opened doors for them to seek amnesty and other benefits such as counselling, capacity building on entrepreneurship and acquisition of technical skills such as carpentry, masonry, and plumbing.
In October 2020 Shamsa was awarded a Heroine medal of Mombasa County by His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta the President of Kenya. This was recognition of her service in promoting peace, cohesion and integration and being at the fore-front in creating awareness at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the many roles she plays include the National Cohesion and Integration Commission focal peace and cohesion champion in the Coast Region. She is also the chairperson of Mombasa Women of Faith Network in which she represents the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims. Under her leadership, Mombasa Women of Faith Network is fostering interfaith relations while countering several community level challenges such as early marriages, an array of SGBV cases and violent extremism.
Mama Shamsa has partnered with Kenya Methodist university, and they have agreed to train 600 reformed youths on entrepreneurship, life skills and patriotism.100 so far have graduated and the second lot to start in January 2022. Due to her motherly nature, she has endeared herself even to the most hardcore criminals who were written off by society, family members and the security agents to become responsible citizens.