Solutions through storytelling: addressing the leading cause of maternal deaths

angelanguku·October 28, 2024·0 comments

For a long time, Angela Nguku, a midwife, advocate and founder of White Ribbon Alliance Kenya, did not speak about her personal experience of postpartum haemorrhage, or severe bleeding after childbirth. This condition is the leading cause of maternal mortality, accounting for over 20% of all maternal deaths recorded globally. 

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Wra Kenya

White Ribbon Alliance Kenya (WRA Kenya) is a people-led movement for reproductive, maternal, and newborn health and rights. We advocate for women’s and girls’ voices and demands to lead change at the local, national, and regional levels and contribute to shaping the global reproductive, maternal, and newborn health (RMNH) agenda.

 

Re-Igniting the Inherent Power in Women and Girls through Advocacy and Action

We deeply believe in advancing the self-articulated needs of women and girls through advocacy to shape policies, programming approaches and strategies. This is aimed at amplifying women, girls and newborn’s voices, and agency, to actively participate in decision-making processes in public, private and civic spheres. We provide our action networks with the right tools, and trainings, to broaden the reach and efforts and realize a lasting change.

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Portfolio

I am Angela Nguku, a midwife, an ICF certified leadership and mindset coach, an advocate, an author, and a movement builder who turned silence into action.

I founded White Ribbon Alliance Kenya to center the voices of over 3.5 million women and girls who have boldly told us what they need for quality reproductive, maternal, and newborn health and wellbeing. We are not just documenting their needs. We are acting with them to address the intersecting issues that go beyond health. These include access to economic power, education, information, clean water, sanitation, dignity in care, among others.

I also founded AudaciousHer, a coaching and leadership platform for women and girls who are done shrinking to fit into broken systems. Through mindset coaching, storytelling, and bold spaces, we support them to reclaim voice, unlearn silence, and lead from a place of truth.

A powerful part of this work is coaching African frontliners — the community midwives, justice defenders, grassroots organizers, and policy disruptors who carry entire systems on their backs while navigating burnout, backlash, and broken institutions. They are the shiftmakers. AudaciousHer provides them with space to breathe, reflect, and lead differently, not just as responders, but as visionaries shaping new futures.

I’ve stood in delivery rooms where dignity was missing. I’ve sat with mothers who’ve buried their dreams and their children. I’ve walked into rooms where inclusion was just performance, not power-sharing. But I also do this work because I’ve seen what happens when a woman is truly listened to. She doesn’t just speak. She moves systems.

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AUDACIOUSHER

For African Women and Girls Who Lead Without Permission

Our Story

I know what it feels like to grow up silenced, taught to keep quiet, defer, and disappear. But silence doesn’t keep us safe. It keeps us small. Across Kenya and Africa, too many women and girls are still raised in that silence. Only 15 percent of girls in Kenya feel confident speaking in public or participating in decisions that shape their lives. This trend mirrors a wider pattern across the continent, where cultural norms and systemic barriers continue to stifle voice and power.

I founded AudaciousHer in 2024 as a bold, African rooted coaching and leadership platform. We walk with women and girls reclaiming their voices. From adolescent mothers to midwives, movement builders to market women. Whether you’re restarting, reinventing, or rising, you’ll find truth, strategy, and sisterhood here.

Our Promise

We don’t just talk growth. We walk with you through it. Mess, truth, clarity, and all.
We build spaces where bold, brave, and unstoppable women and girls rise, speak, and lead without apology.

Our Programs

Coaching For Africa’s Frontliners

One on one and team coaching for women and girls holding broken systems together. This includes midwives, nurses, justice defenders, and youth advocates. Grounded in lived experience, these sessions help restore clarity, courage, and care.

Mentorship & Courage Circles

Small group coaching and safe truth telling spaces for mid career reinvention, healing, and reclaiming power. Women and girls come to reconnect with who they are. Without shrinking.

Shiftmakers Series

A storytelling platform that honors real African women and girls shaping change without applause or performance. From adolescent mothers to market traders and quiet policy influencers, their stories ripple.

Early Fire

Too many African girls are taught to shrink before they’re ever taught to speak. AudaciousHer creates bold, safe spaces where girls both in and out of school can unlearn silence early, name their voice, and step into power before the world teaches them fear.

Audacious Convenings

Because real change starts with what we are brave enough to say out loud.
We do not moderate to keep the peace. We moderate to move the room. These are not polite panels. They are bold, truth filled sessions where power is questioned, silence is named, and clarity becomes action.
Whether it is in a boardroom, a village hall, or a global summit, we hold space for what matters. We convene with purpose, ask the uncomfortable questions, and turn conversations into strategy.

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