International Women’s Month 2026 | CcHUB Changemakers Series

Photo of Martha Jesuleke

Martha Jesuleke teaches Biology at Obele Community Senior High School in Lagos. The microscopic world she needs her students to understand—cell division, anatomical structures, botanical cross-sections—is invisible without the right tools. So she comes to the Teachers Lounge at CcHUB, logs onto high-speed internet, and pulls up virtual laboratories and 3D biological simulations that make the invisible visible.

That alone would be enough but Martha took it further. She started training other Biology teachers in her district to do the same thing. She led student projects on local waste management and ecological conservation. She built, in her words, “a new generation of African students pursuing careers in Biotechnology, Medicine, and Environmental Science” from our innovation hub in Yaba.

Martha is one of six women we’re spotlighting from our innovation hubs in Lagos, Nairobi, and Windhoek. They don’t have much in common professionally. 

One is a veteran broadcaster pivoting into film. Another mentors early-stage entrepreneurs in Namibia. A third is writing stage plays and editing feature films. What connects them is that they all walked into a hub looking for space to work, and ended up building something that didn’t exist before.

Photo of Tolu “Toolz” Oniru

Tolu “Toolz” Oniru has spent almost 15 years in Nigerian media, first in radio, then television and digital platforms. She’s now pivoting into filmmaking and content production, and she’s doing it from the Entertainment and Media Hub in Lagos.

“You can sit next to a tech founder, a filmmaker, a designer, and an entrepreneur all in the same space, and everyone is exchanging ideas and pushing each other to think bigger,” Toolz shares. 

For someone learning to structure film projects and think about how African stories connect with global audiences, that proximity matters. 

Her goal is to “help African content travel further, creating work that is rooted in our culture but can connect with audiences anywhere in the world.”

Photo of Shirleen Wangar

In Nairobi, Shirleen Wangari has been doing exactly that. She uses the Stawi Creative Spaces to write her stage plays and the CEP Editing Suite to produce feature films. Her most recent project saw her transitioning the play, Cards on the Table, from stage to the screen. Give an African creative world-class production tools and the space to use them, and the work scales.

Photo of Phyian Karinge

Phyian Karinge, also at iHUB in Nairobi, works on the other side of the ecosystem. Her focus is getting more Africans into tech through skills training. “My mission is to leave no African behind in the tech revolution,” she says. The specifics matter to her  and she wants to build “hope around the pathways that will drive Africa’s digital economy forward.” It’s unglamorous, foundational work, the kind that only compounds over years.

Photo of Emily Shikwamhanda

In Windhoek, Emily Shikwamhanda operates at CcHUB Namibia as a mentor and coach to early-stage innovators and entrepreneurs. She runs one-on-one sessions with founders in the network and uses the hub’s events and programs to build partnerships and broker knowledge exchanges across the southern African innovation community. The work is less about building her own thing and more about making other people’s things better.

Photo of Folakemi Orekoya

Folakemi Orekoya is building her own thing. She founded Soft Life Travel Club, a platform that curates structured travel experiences, events, and gatherings for working professionals in Nigeria. The premise is that ambitious people need intentional rest, community, and well-designed experiences that exist outside of work pressure.

She runs the business from CcHUB’s co-workspace in Lagos: “Being surrounded by founders, innovators, and ambitious professionals creates an atmosphere that constantly challenges me to build with clarity and long-term impact in mind.”

Co-creation HUB (CcHUB) Limited Innovation Centers Across Africa

Six women across three countries and three hubs. A Biology teacher multiplying STEM education across her district. A broadcaster learning to make films. A playwright who put her play on screen. A tech educator building access pipelines. A mentor strengthening founders she’ll never compete with. An entrepreneur who thinks rest is a serious product.

They all set out to do specific work, in a specific place, with the tools available. The impact followed.

This International Women’s Month, the She Gave. Africa Gained. campaign spotlighted 30 women like them across our hubs. The nomination window for Number 31 closes soon. If you know someone who belongs here, submit your nomination.