“Just like the lotus,  which rises from muddy waters to bloom in all its beauty, SheAid emerges from challenges stronger, wiser, and with double the determination.” That is how Hellen Atieno Matakwa, an Advocate of the High Court and founder of SheAid and ShePower Summit, describes her initiative. 

Hellen is a serial multitasker with a sharp entrepreneurial instinct. The Inaugural ShePower Summit, her latest brainchild, took place on the 28th of February 2025 at the Eka Hotel Nairobi. ShePower Summit 2025 brought together seasoned experts from different arenas to have inspiring conversations on select subject matters that affect women and youth, including:

• Confidence
• The gender agenda
• Allyship (How men and women can heal together)
• Business and entrepreneurship
• Advocacy
• The future of Gender, a Gen Z perspective of the movement

Among the experts leading the conversation across the different topics included Hon. Millie Odhiambo Mabona, Singer Fena Gitu, Human rights activist Boniface Mwangi, Career Strategist Coach Leah Awiti-Omil, and Inclusivity and empowerment activist Hon. Ashura Michael, just to name a few. It also brought together three generations of women’s rights organizations, including the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya (FIDA) Kenya, the Kenya Female Advisory Organization (KEFEADO), and SheAid.

So, what inspired Hellen to pull all these heavy-weight names together? (Mind you, she pulled off the event without funding and only recruited a PA toward the tail end of the event planning process). So, get inspired by her journey, from overcoming various life challenges to creating a platform that supports those experiencing similar hurdles.

As Women’s Month 2025 draws to a close, we spotlight Hellen Atieno Matakwa and celebrate her journey to establishing SheAid, the organization behind the ShePower Summit. SheAid emerged from the challenges Hellen faced to become an organization where every woman and young person facing similar challenges can come for a sense of community, to draw inspiration, and to receive rejuvenation on their life’s journey.

Turning Lemons Into Lemonade: Birthing SheAid and ShePower Summit

Hellen Atieno Matakwa is many things, including an event organizer, a car enthusiast, an author (watch out for her upcoming book launch), and a legal consultant. However, today, as Women’s Month ends, we shine the spotlight on her as a woman lawyer empowering the community.

Unlike most legal professionals who knew from the onset that they wanted to study law, Hellen set her sights on criminology because she was intrigued by the thrills of investigation. Her curiosity morphed her into an all-around problem-solver.

Separately, Hellen enjoys event management and she took a gap year after high school, during which she also dabbled in accounting by undertaking a CPA course. It is no wonder she faced a bit of a conundrum when deciding which career to pursue at the university.

“My father, being a typical African parent, decided I should go to law school, primarily due to the prestige associated with the profession. He bolstered his argument by pointing out that I had registered exemplary results in the legal courses in my CPA.” Hellen joined the law school at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). 

Joining law school did not curb Hellen’s exploratory nature. “My late mother had nicknamed me ‘Timothy Tester’ because I was always trying/ experimenting with new things, touching candles to see if I’ll get burned.” Therefore, in true Timothy Tester fashion, she explored various money-making ventures while attending law school, including setting up a food business and a nail parlor and interning at a law firm, developing her entrepreneurship and networking skills. 

After law school, Hellen took another gap year to figure out her next move. In 2018, she decided to transition to the Kenya School of Law for the Advocate’s Training Program.

“I was good in class at KSL. However, I was a bit overconfident because I was working and practicing what we were learning at KSL daily while interning at the law firm.” According to Hellen, the overconfidence caused her to pay less attention to her revision and studies than she would ordinarily have. Unfortunately, she only passed three of the exams and failed in six. “I couldn’t believe it because everybody I tutored, Including those I tutored at the last minute, had passed. I was shocked and felt that life was really unfair.” 

The trauma of failing six out of nine courses was too much to bear. Consequently, Hellen spent a year grieving this perceived personal loss and had a difficult time registering for a re-sit. Unfortunately, not taking the re-sit impacted her stay at her pupillage station (Sagana Biriq & Company Advocates), a place that held immense promise for her legal career. “Despite my exemplary performance at work, they had to let me go in early 2019 because they could not retain me as an advocate, yet they had a duty to train more pupils, so I had to give up my slot for the next person.” Therefore, when her one-year tenure as a pupil lapsed, she decided to go to Kisumu County and see what the county had to offer. Moving to Kisumu meant she would have to put her retakes on hold. 

The first opportunity that arose was working as a volunteer (pro bono) Legal Director for the Lake Region Economic Block, a regional economic block covering the former Nyanza province. She was also part of the team that formed the Kisumu Lakefront Development Corporation under the chairmanship of FCPA Edward R. Ouko. Additionally, she doubled as the corporation’s assistant legal director, which motivated her to revisit the issue of her retake papers at KSL. “Having my academic papers in order would have earned me the legal director position. So I did the first six retakes in 2020, after two years, and passed two, meaning four remained.”

By this time, the corporation’s legal director had resigned to pursue greener pastures, forcing Hellen to assume the role and learn on the job. “One vital lesson: always be willing to start things without money.” Hellen adds that the experience in establishing the Kisumu Lakefront Development Corporation also taught her the value of partnerships and, most importantly, convincing people to partner with you. “Convincing corporations to join the board taught me how to turn ‘my idea’ into ‘our idea.’” The convincing bit was helpful in her later projects, including the ShePower Summit.

“I turned ShePower and SheAid from Hellen’s thing into Boniface Mwangi’s thing, Millie Mabona’s thing, Adelle Onyango’s thing, and a thing for so many other people who I’ve never met.” Although she was in the KSL class of 2018, Hellen finally got admitted to the bar in 2023. Her experiences while awaiting admission, including working for the Kisumu County Government, were part of the inspiration behind SheAid and ShePower Summit in 2024.

Establishing SheAid and ShePower

Hellen has worked in diverse spaces within and outside the legal profession. So, why focus on women’s empowerment? Which gap is she striving to fill with ShePower? Second, how do her qualifications as a lawyer play into her work at SheAid and the ShePower Summit?

As highlighted above, It took Hellen way longer than anticipated to gain admission to the bar. Moreover, she also faced challenges finding a secure job, which also translated to financial security, and other challenges, including a struggle with depression.

 “I looked at my life and realized that I cannot be the only woman (mother, daughter, or sister) who has had to pick up a role that wasn’t theirs. I cannot be the only woman who has had to work in spaces where I’m undoubtedly overqualified yet struggling to advocate for a remuneration package and other privileges that match her qualifications. Essentially, life has put you in a corner where you’re just accepting what is available and convenient for the time.”

This brings us back to the lotus flower comparison. According to Hellen, the flower’s capacity to thrive under challenging conditions represents a woman’s strength, healing, and journey toward self-empowerment. Therefore, SheAid stands on four pillars:

• Business/Entrepreneurship
• Leadership
• Advocacy
• Mentorship 

These pillars branched into the ten panel discussion topics explored during the ShePower Summit.

In the spirit of converting ‘my thing’ into ‘our thing,’ Hellen screened her network and contacted various professionals. She racked their brains for most of late 2023 and early 2024, asking what it took to organize a summit and sustain a conversation through events. Her networks echoed the one lesson she knew by heart from her experience at the Kisumu Lakefront Development Corporation: Just start; you don’t need the money. 

SheAid and ShePower were the beautiful blooms that emerged from her challenges. “ShePower Summit is inspired by my story, and I wanted it to be a victorious story, not a pitiful one.”

She began marketing the ShePower Summit and rallied potential panelists through their social media accounts. She also created a database from her network to help her maintain perspective in her marketing and advocacy tasks.

“For my panelists, I wanted a group of seasoned professionals across diverse walks of life to encourage the audience through their personal journeys and stories.” Said Hellen. “I made it about them. In everything I wanted to do, I asked the database I had created, “Is there a point in a potential speaker’s life that s/he went through any of the issues addressed in the ten topics we’ve narrowed down to?” The point was to choose people who can relate to the topic at hand and are relatable. 

Each speaker’s message to the audience was, “I wasn’t born this way; I was created, and you  too can create the version of the woman you aspire to be.”

Hellen remains grateful for pulling the ShePower Summit and its impact on all who attended. 

Sustained Empowerment #AccelerateAction

ShePower Summit 2025 presented a wonderful avenue to spark conversation around the unique challenges women generally face. However, as highlighted above, Hellen aimed to sustain the conversation beyond the single-day event and reach a wider audience. So, what next for SheAid?

One of the strategies she has in place to keep the momentum going until the next ShePower Summit event is running masterclasses stemming from business/ entrepreneurship, advocacy, self-development, empowerment, and how gender equality cuts across all four pillars. She’s currently recruiting volunteer trainers with expertise in various fields, including innovation & strategy, tax consultancy, cyber security, digital marketing, HR & talent management, leadership coaching, banking & microfinance, investments, wealth management and branding & marketing, just to name a few. 

If you’re passionate about mentorship and giving back through your skills and experience, you can find more information on ShePower’s Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok pages.

Second, as with any female empowerment activity, the question of men’s empowerment also arises. To this end, Hellen, who is very keen on feedback, is writing a book titled Men in My Life. You can check out ShePower’s social media pages for details on her book launch. 

Third, she hopes to sustain the ShePower Summit through outreach campaigns, including one dubbed the Campus Caravan. This campaign includes activations hosted across various university campus grounds. The Campus Caravan will also involve sponsors and notable personalities who can relate to and tackle various topics, including youth unemployment, something she’s all too familiar with.

Reflections:

According to Hellen, being a lawyer gives her legitimacy to run her initiatives. “If you approach someone and tell them, “Hello, I’m passionate about subject XYZ, and I’m also a lawyer…” you gain their full attention.” Therefore, whether you’re still a student or a young lawyer with one-year post-admission experience like Hellen, you can tap into the profession’s legitimacy to advocate for the issues you’re passionate about.

Hellen’s journey to creating SheAid and the ShePower Summit has many lessons for women across various stages of life: 

• First, have an open mind and allow yourself to explore opportunities beyond your comfort zone. 
• Second, doors will close, and others will open, so you must be agile enough to identify opportunities and seize them.
• Third, it sounds like a cliche, but your network is your net worth—purpose to have meaningful and intentional interactions with as many people as you can across diverse fields.
• Fourth, we all have fears; may we receive the courage to face them and the grace to be who we were meant to be.
• Fifth, you’re a work in progress, regardless of where you are. Celebrate your wins and keep going, even if it means moving laterally or downward before going up.

So, whether you’re working on becoming version 3.0 or even 1.1 of (put your name here), we hope that, like the lotus flower, you will be encouraged to rise above whatever narratives, circumstances, or setbacks that have held you back. 

Dear Hellen, The LawDown  Africa celebrates you for heeding the call to #AccelerateAction. Thank you for choosing to be vulnerable and using your life lessons, networks, and authority and perspective as a lawyer to inspire and uplift women from all walks of life.