{"id":16660,"date":"2026-07-20T11:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T11:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/awra-group.org\/en\/?p=16660"},"modified":"2026-07-20T16:05:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T16:05:50","slug":"sarafina-loriakwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awra-group.org\/en\/sarafina-loriakwe\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarafina Loriakwe"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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SARAFINA LORIAKWE<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t
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Sarafina Loriakwe is a survivor advocate, mentor, and research consultant working across the Samburu <\/span>and Nairobi communities, and affiliated with the survivor led movement. Her work sits at the <\/span>intersection of advocacy, community engagement, and research, with a strong focus on ending FGM, <\/span>child marriage, and gender based violence while advancing girls\u2019 education, sexual and reproductive <\/span>health and rights, and women\u2019s empowerment.<\/span><\/p>

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Her journey into advocacy is deeply rooted in lived experience. A life changing experience at a young age <\/span>shifted her path, bringing with it stigma, emotional challenges, and moments of self-doubt. Through a <\/span>long process of healing and self discovery, Sarafina began to understand how many young girls and <\/span>women endure similar experiences in silence. This realization became the foundation of her purpose <\/span>driven work: transforming personal pain into advocacy, awareness, and support for others navigating <\/span>similar realities.<\/span><\/p>

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Today, Sarafina uses her lived experience as both a tool for connection and a bridge for change. She <\/span>facilitates mentorship sessions for young girls, creates safe spaces for discussions on sexual and <\/span>reproductive health, and leads community dialogues addressing youth empowerment and stigma <\/span>particularly around issues such as teenage motherhood. She also contributes to storytelling and <\/span>awareness campaigns, using narrative and lived experience to challenge silence and inspire <\/span>understanding within communities.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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One of the most defining moments in her work came after a community dialogue she facilitated, when a <\/span>young girl approached her and quietly said, \u201cI thought I was alone until today.\u201d That moment reaffirmed <\/span>Sarafina\u2019s belief that impact is often found in small but powerful human connections, where sharing <\/span>stories helps others feel seen, validated, and less isolated.<\/span><\/p>

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Sarafina\u2019s approach is rooted in lived experience, empathy, and authenticity. She does not speak about <\/span>issues from a distance; she speaks from within them. This allows her to build deep trust with young <\/span>people and create non judgmental spaces where honest conversations can take place. By combining <\/span>storytelling with advocacy, she breaks stigma while also connecting individuals to information, support, <\/span>and opportunities for growth. Despite her impact, she has faced challenges including stigma, self doubt, <\/span>emotional strain, and limited opportunities in some professional spaces. However, she continues to <\/span>grow through resilience, turning each challenge into part of her leadership journey. Her work is guided <\/span>by empathy, honesty, and dignity, ensuring that every engagement is rooted in respect and <\/span>understanding.<\/span><\/p>

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For Sarafina, sisterhood is a form of solidarity where women and girls genuinely show up for one <\/span>another without judgment. It is about shared strength, healing, and the power of lived experience as a <\/span>collective tool for transformation. Through the Sister to Sister Initiative, she envisions deeper peer <\/span>support, learning, and empowerment that centers the voices of women from diverse lived realities. <\/span>She strongly believes that meaningful change happens when youth voices and lived experiences are <\/span>centered in programs, research, and policy. Her long term vision is to contribute to systems in the MERL <\/span>and development space that are informed by community realities, ensuring that young people especially <\/span>girls are not only supported but also trusted as leaders of change.<\/span><\/p>

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Sarafina envisions a future where girls and women are fully informed, supported, and free from stigma, <\/span>where conversations around reproductive health and lived experiences are open and respectful, and <\/span>where every girl knows her voice and story matter.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\tMy story is not my limitation, it is my message and my voice is for every girl who thought she had to stay silent.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSARAFINA LORIAKWE<\/cite>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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SARAFINA LORIAKWE Sarafina Loriakwe is a survivor advocate, mentor, and research consultant working across the Samburu and Nairobi communities, and affiliated with the survivor led movement. Her work sits at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-s2sprofiles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/awra-group.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7-1.png?fit=960%2C1200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awra-group.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awra-group.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awra-group.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awra-group.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awra-group.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16660"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/awra-group.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16670,"href":"https:\/\/awra-group.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16660\/revisions\/16670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awra-group.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awra-group.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awra-group.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awra-group.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}