Episode 26: Spotlight: Feminist Movement Builders School with Samrawit Assefa

Spotlight on Feminist Movement Building School

We are in conversation with participants from our second Feminist Movement Builders School convened in partnership with Just Associates in from August 2024-August 2025.

About the episode

🎙️ Content warning: this episode contains discussion of sexual violence in conflict

In episode 26, host Nadia Asri speaks with Samrawit Assefa, a Gender-Based Violence specialist, working in and with communities in Tigray, where the ongoing conflict has been marked by unimaginable violence, including ethnic cleansing and the weaponisation of sexual violence.

Samrawit shares her reflections on what it means to organise amid crisis — how women and girls have resisted, healed, and rebuilt through feminist solidarity and care.

This is a conversation about courage, grief, and the power of collective action.

Bio

Samrawit has more than fifteen years of experience in the areas of Gender Based Violence (GBV) Prevention and Response and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, both in development and conflict-affected humanitarian settings. She has worked with governmental, non-governmental, and community-based organizations and UN agencies to establish and improve GBV systems in various capacities to improve women’s and girls’ wellness.

Samrawit has worked directly with refugees, Internally Displaced People (IDPs), and local communities and has experience working globally, providing direct case management and psychosocial support services, and coordinating with different agencies to establish systems to support survivors of GBV. As a GBV specialist in Emergencies with the World Health Organization (WHO), I have worked within the Health Sector to strengthen and institutionalize GBV services in health facilities by developing tools, guidance, and SOPs. Samrawit is part of the SASA! global technical advisers with Raising Voices, a proven and innovative GBV awareness-raising approach. She is trained in Sexual Abuse and Exploitation investigation and has established a Community-Based Complaints Mechanism (CBCM) in refugee camps in Ethiopia, along with other organizations. She is an expert in facilitating Forum Theatre on topics such as Prevention of Sexual Abuse and Exploitation. She has conducted action research and contributed to the guidelines “Girl Shine” and “Traditions and Opportunities: A toolkit for GBV programs to engage community leaders in humanitarian settings”

Credits

Interviewee: Samrawit Assefa

Interviewer: Nadia Asri

Produced by: The Feminist Centre for Racial Justice

Sound design, editing, production: Ellan A. Lincoln-Hyde

Music: Broken by AudioWay, freesound.org.