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Woman Up

Joy Tendai Kangere

Season 1, Ep. 5


This week, on Woman Up!, I'm joined by Joy-Tendai Kengere.


Originally from Zimbabwe, Joy-Tendai arrived in Ireland at the beginning of this century, lured by the shiny promises of the Celtic Tiger. She was hopeful that - given this nation's experience of colonialism - there would be a rejection of racism here. Of course, she was wrong. Within weeks of arriving, she was told to go back where she came from, and she found it very difficult to secure employment that made use of education, skills, and talents. Joy-Tendai, however, is nothing if not tenacious.


As the mother of two young children, she returned to education, completing her BL at UCD. Afterwards, having been awarded the prestigious Denham Scholarship, she trained as a barrister at King's Inns. She has just been appointed as a lecturer at UCD.


In addition, she is a passionate advocate for life-long learning and was formerly on the board of Aontas.


Joy-Tendai also writes for the Irish Independent:https://www.independent.ie/opinion/independent-journalists/joy-tendai-kangere/


Sadly, she has also experienced very traumatic losses in her life. Her father died when she was still in her teens, and her last baby died shortly after birth in 2013 - an event that nearly cost Joy-Tendai her own life. As October is Baby Loss and Awareness Month, we spoke a bit about that experience as well. If you would like to access support around the issue of baby loss, please contact Feileachain (https://feileacain.ie).


You can contact Joy-Tendai on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JTFlamelily




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