“We must give activists and human rights defenders the tools to protect themselves from threats to their digital security.”

Tawanda Mugari is the co-founder and CTO of Digital Society of Africa (DSA), an organization that strengthens the resilience and abilities of frontline activists, human rights defenders and other at-risk groups in the region to independently recognize and respond to digital threats and attacks. DSA seeks to achieve this using the holistic security approach, including organizational security audits, risk assessment, training, sustainable security accompaniment, and tech support. To date, more than 500 individual human rights defenders, and over 60 organizations have received assistance and capacity-building support from DSA.

Vision: Organizations and collectives representing vulnerable communities should have the tools and expertise to protect themselves from digital threats and not rely on external support. This way they can better fight oppressive, racist and sexist structures.