The Board Member

Maimuna Kanyamala is an award-winning Tanzanian feminist and entrepreneur who has actively campaigned for women’s rights in Tanzania for the last 20 years. She is currently the Executive Director and Founder of Mikono Yetu- the Center4Creativity and Innovation. a female led non-governmental organization based in Mwanza, Tanzania that finds new ways of economically empowering less advantaged women, girls to access, own and control land resource more productively, profitably and sustainably.
Maimuna is a strong and active member in the NGO sector. Having founded the Kivulini Women’s Rights Organization, a vibrant community-based organization mobilizing communities to prevent violence against women and girls, Maimuna is a strong advocate for the rights of marginalized groups in Tanzania. Focusing particularly on the rights of women and girls. Maimuna has partnered with international feminist groups to build global solidarity on shared issues of violence against women, HIV/AIDS, poverty and environmental protection.
In 2011, Maimuna was presented the ‘Tanzania Women of Courage’ award by the US Embassy in Tanzania. Since then, she has stepped down from her leadership role with Kivulini to devote her time to founding MikonoYetu Organization, an impactful community-based organization focused on Tanzanian women’s history and economic empowerment. The vision of MikonoYetu is to enable the economic empowerment of women and girls, as well as to develop a more comprehensive history of Tanzanian women throughout time. Eventually she would like to establish a women’s history museum in Mwanza.
In Tanzania and abroad, Maimuna has served in several prominent boards including those within the government institutions (government schools and Mwanza Urban Water Supply) and non-government organization. Internationally, Maimuna represents Women Fund Tanzania, an organization based in Dar es Salaam and Women in Partnership for Water board.