Advocate for Change
Connie Kachel White
Sociologist Mary Mzubwa Ndaro ’11 has been the executive director of HakiElimu — Kiswahili for “Right to Education” — since Jan. 9. She has been an advocate for quality, equity and human rights in education a whole lot longer.
Born in northern Tanzania’s Mara administrative region, which runs along the shores of Lake Victoria and borders Kenya, Ndaro was raised by her grandmother in the close-knit village of Mugango. “Mugango is more than where I grew up,” she says. “It is the foundation of who I am.”
Her early schooling took her across Tanzania — from Mugango Primary School to primary, secondary and high schools in Musoma, Mwanza and Korogwe — before she completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Dar es Salaam. She then ventured across an ocean to pursue a master’s degree in sociology at Wichita State, drawn by a program that aligned with her aspirations, a sister already living in Wichita, and an intuition that Wichita was a city she could grow in without feeling overwhelmed.
Her intuition proved correct. WSU’s sociology department offered more than academic training; it provided a feminist sisterhood and a community of professors who invested in their students. She recalls seemingly simple gestures of support: one professor pausing to remind her to breathe during a stressful moment and sociology professor and department chair Ron Matson — with characteristic humility — holding her infant son during class as if that were the most natural thing in the world. “Wichita was more than a university,” she says. “It gave me education, community, confidence and lifelong relationships.”
Those relationships and values carried her into nearly two decades of work advancing gender equality, social justice, and inclusive development across civil society, international organizations, and grassroots movements in Tanzania and beyond. Her advocacy has centered women and girls in marginalised communities, championing their voices within systems that too often exclude them — including, notably, supporting adolescent mothers returning to school. That thread runs directly to HakiElimu. “Education is not only a fundamental right,” Ndaro says. “It is a powerful driver of gender equality.” She sees her role as bridging movement-building, storytelling and feminist advocacy with the education sector, ensuring that the right to education reaches those — children with disabilities, young mothers, rural and low-income families — who need it most.
This sister, mother of three, student, friend, executive director and advocate for change remains deeply proud of the country that first shaped her. “Tanzania is still writing its story,” she says, “and I am proud to be part of that journey.”
Or safari, as it’s said in Kiswahili.
“Mary Ndaro is a graduate of Wichita State’s sociology Master of Arts program. She is Tanzanian and is a strong, visible and brave advocate for girls’ and women’s rights and quality of life in her country at a time when it is dangerous to do so. When I first met her when she started her program at WSU, she had been working in Tanzania on critical maternal health issues. She is a truly inspiring person.”
Rosemary Wright | WSU Senior Research Scientist
