Dennis Songa

Youth Advocate, Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW) Kenya

Dennis Songa was born in 1999 in Makunga village, Mumias-East sub-county in Kakamega county, Kenya. He is a third born in a family of seven. He grew up in the village, attended a village primary school and later joined a neighboring secondary school. Coming from a poor family and growing up in a village that embraced outdated cultures such as FGM was so demanding. Dennis was passionate about becoming a doctor but seeing the afflictions that women went through, being forced to bear children and the persistent GBV made him change his mind and decided that he was going to make an impact at both the community and the national level. Poverty increased since people were not ready to embrace family planning and did not even have information about it since taking of family planning was a taboo.

Dennis decided to pursue a course, Bachelor of science in community health education, research and administration that he is currently studying at Moi university. He decided that he would advocate for equity in accessing SRHR services especially at the community level. He decided that he was going to embrace primary health care and ensure it is implemented at the communities. He volunteered to work with DSW kenya from 2020 and helps in advocating for SRHR. He is a co-founder of a Entrust Youth Platform youth group and the founder of ENUCA KENYA youth group, which advocates for youth affairs and the vulnerable in accessing family planning services across Kenya.