Mercy is a deeply driven community leader who has focused for the past four years on improving young lives in Kibera through leading youth rugby teams. Originally from Nakuru, she joined the Nakuru RFC rugby team after finishing high school. She then moved to Nairobi to play for the Kenya Harlequins and has gone on to represent Homebozy Club and Impala Rugby Club.

Before co-founding the Women Warriors Development Programme, she has been a member of the Kenya Lionesses 15’s team since she earned her debut in 2019 during the Elgon Cup against Uganda. She was also a fundamental part of the Team tasked with taking Kenya to the World Cup in 2021 and boasts nine caps. Around the same period, she started volunteer coaching in Kibera and became passionate about how rugby could be used to empower young girls. Since then, she has coached ten teams and founded two clubs.

Mercy is a rugby Level 1 15s certified coach and is undergoing the process of obtaining a Level 2 certification. She has also undergone a life skill course with the Kenya Community Development Foundation.

Lia is a passionate young leader seeking to change how Western Actors interested in development engage with East African communities. She was first introduced to the East African Region by studying abroad in Nairobi in the fall of 2019. There, her passion for global health and development was solidified, and she became connected with the Kenyan Lionesses Community, where she played for the Impala Rugby Club in Nairobi.

Before co-founding the Women Warriors Development Programme, she worked under the Chief of the Section of UN-Habitat in Geneva, supporting the agency’s responses to Noncommunicable diseases and COVID-19 through technical policy research. She previously interned at CFK Africa, working on the ground as a Community Outreach intern in Kibera and in the Development and Global Communication departments. In the fall of 2018, she served as a Legislative Intern for Congressman Kurt Schrader, representing Oregon’s 5th congressional district in the United States.

Lia holds a bachelor's degree in International Studies (Concentration in Global Health and Environmental Sustainability focused in Sub-Saharan Africa) from American University in Washington, D.C.