Coalition for Grassroots Human Rights Defenders Kenya
Mathare, Nairobi, Kenya
Mobilizing defenders in Nairobi's informal settlements to document violations, protect activists, and advance civic rights
Team Size
Community network across Nairobi
Duration
13 months
The Coalition for Grassroots Human Rights Defenders (CGHRD) Kenya is a community-rooted organization based in Mathare, one of Nairobi's largest informal settlements. Founded by community organizer and woman human rights defender Rachael Mwikali, CGHRD operates as a meeting space for defenders working in slums and rural areas across Kenya, a documentation hub for human rights violations, and a platform for women's leadership and civic education. Programs span activist protection, constitutional rights training, women and girls' empowerment, and access to menstrual health resources; with community feeding reaching up to 600 vulnerable families in Nairobi County. The organization is supported by the Ford Foundation, Haki Africa, Thousand Currents, and ForumCiv.
The Challenge
Running multiple intersecting programs; documentation of violations, activist protection, women's leadership clusters, civic education workshops, and community feeding; from a grassroots base in Mathare meant coordination happened largely through informal channels. It was difficult to track which communities had been reached, follow up with survivors seeking support, schedule knowledge-exchange sessions, or produce the kind of structured reporting that partners like Ford Foundation and Hivos required.
The Solution
CGHRD adopted TaskMate to bring structure to their community programs without adding bureaucratic overhead. Documentation workflows, women's cluster schedules, civic education sessions, and community feeding logistics are now tracked in one place; giving Rachael's team visibility across all programs from a single dashboard.
Implementation
- Built human rights violation documentation workflows with case status tracking
- Created women's cluster coordination spaces for solidarity and leadership programs
- Implemented civic education workshop scheduling and community reach tracking
- Established activist protection follow-up workflows
- Set up consolidated reporting for Ford Foundation and partner organizations
The Results
Families Reached (Feeding)
Violations Documented
Women's Clusters Active
Reporting Time
"We are on the ground in Mathare every day; documenting, protecting, and organizing. TaskMate gave us the tools to run multiple programs at once without losing track of anyone. Our defenders are better supported and our partners can see exactly what we are doing."
Key Taskmate Features Used
- Human rights violation documentation workflows
- Women's cluster coordination and scheduling
- Civic education and training session tracking
- Activist protection follow-up management
- Funder reporting consolidation
Looking Forward
CGHRD is expanding its regional knowledge-exchange program to connect grassroots defenders across Kenya and plans to use TaskMate to coordinate the logistics and documentation for those cross-community learning sessions.
Ready to amplify your impact?
Join Coalition for Grassroots Human Rights Defenders Kenya and other organizations across East Africa using Taskmate to coordinate their teams and reach more communities.