Jestina Mukoko

Jestina Mukoko is a journalist, human rights activist, and the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, an NGO responsible for monitoring and documenting human rights abuses by the Zimbabwean government. In 2008, Mukoko was abducted from her home in the middle of the night and taken for interrogation about her NGO. Accused of recruiting youths for military training with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Jestina was held and tortured for three months before being released on bail.

Mukoko was one of the ten human rights defenders honored in the U.S. State Department’s International Women of Courage Awards in 2010. That year, she was also selected as a fellow with the Oak Institute for the Study of International Human Rights at Colby College. Jestina continues her work as founder and president of the Jestina Mukoko Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing victims of human rights abuse with a platform for healing and restoration.