Tendisai Chigwedere has been passionate about working with communities and their leaders to find justice, find their voice, and speak their truth since childhood. A path to print journalism cemented her interest in “giving voice to the voiceless” until she realized that no one can give anyone a voice – everyone finds their own voice.

Tendisai’s journey has taken her from sitting with and learning from communities in urban marginalized communities in Washington DC, Sacramento, and Cairo, to a deep dive in investigative journalism, community organizing, and advocacy in Honduras and Mexico. She thrives on opportunities to leverage creative and collaborative strategies to advance progressive development in the global South.  As a connector and proponent of facilitating space for innovation, dialogue and collective solutioning she co-hosted the first TEDxHarare in 2011 as her re-entry to Zimbabwe; worked on launching Moto Republik as Zimbabwe’s first creative hub, and published the the impact of local civic engagement in Zimbabwe from a developmental evaluation perspective with Interchurch Organisation for Development Cooperation (ICCO). Believing in the need to bridge grassroots efforts with wider advocacy and public policy processes, Tendisai joined the public service in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the Government of National Unity (GNU) in Zimbabwe, where she was the senior officer on the African Union desk for 4 years.

The intersection of Tendisai’s professional path has found a voice at TrustAfrica where she is able to use her role as Learning Manager to link strategic civic engagement and local empowerment processes to amplify impact for vibrant and progressive development and governance in Africa. Tendisai has a Bachelors’ degree in journalism from SacState and a Masters’ degree in International Development with a concentration on Advocacy from Eastern University. She was a distinguished UN Disarmament Fellow in 2012, a Spencer W. Perkins Fellowship through Nehemiah Corporation of America and a Nehemiah Scholar through the Sacramento Black Chamber of Commerce. Tendisai is conversant in English, Spanish, French and Shona.