Ewuraba - Professional African Women with Class and Style

An Inspiration to All African Women

Bhatupe Mhango’s experience as an HIV-positive young professional makes her a keen and dynamic advocate for the rights of people living with HIV.  She is very interested in the link between political processes, HIV and development.  Articulate, opinionated and poised, Bhatupe is the first international coordinator of the UN advocacy initiative called UN Plus.  UN Plus is a workplace initiative within the United Nations system that promotes the rights of HIV-positive employees and advocates for their equality in workplace policies, provides them with support mechanisms by uniting them in solidarity with each other across work fields, UN agencies, duty stations and regions of the world.  Prior to this Bhatupe worked with UNDP Malawi.  Bhatupe has lead, managed and supported a number of activities aimed at de-stigmatization and equipping marginalised groups with the relevant skills for their empowerment.

Like many young students, June Arunga took time off from law school for a road trip. But it was no spring break. Working with a BBC TV film crew, she traveled 5,000 miles from Cairo to Cape Town, documenting a grueling journey that brought her from war zones, mining towns, and refugee camps to Desmond Tutu's living room. "I wanted to know, Why is Africa so poor?" says the Kenyan, from her current home in Ghana. To visit people displaced after a 30-year war over oil in Sudan, she had to hitch a ride with the relief organization Doctors Without Borders. While she visited with UN peacekeepers, she says, local rebels "threatened to slit my throat and eat my flesh." At the end of her trip, after praying with Tutu in his living room, she bluntly asked the Nobel Prize winner, "Where have Africans gone wrong?"

Director, JUM Exclusive, Uganda

Joy Gahigana has owned and operated JUM Exclusive, a retail clothing shop for men, women and children since 2006 as well as offers tailoring services. Her hopes are to expand into the assembly of clothes, which would allow the employment of local manpower - to be trained by government programs such as Vision 2020.

Born in a refugee camp in Southwest Uganda, she later moved to Kenya where her elementary and high school education were completed. She attended Kenyatta University to obtain a Bachelors of Education in Home Economics, graduating in 1992. Immediately following graduation, Joy received a sponsorship to study at the University of Manitoba, Canada via a program designed to help refugee students continue their college education. She completed her Bachelors degree in Human Ecology majoring in Clothing and Textiles. After graduation she worked for Western Gloves in Winnipeg, Manitoba which specialized in casual jeans wear. In 1998, she married and moved to Nashville, TN with her husband. They began a family and Joy became a stay-at-home mother until her children were old enough to begin school.