Empowering African Women

Salewa Amaechi — Founder & Executive Director

Salewa Amaechi is the Founder of Precious Rural African Women Poverty Eradication Foundation (PRAWPEF), established in Nigeria in 2025.

For more than 20 years, Salewa has carried a deep passion and desire to see African women restored, empowered and equipped to realise their full potential and build brighter futures for themselves, their families and their communities.

In 2019, she travelled to Africa and spent time with women living and working in rural communities. She met women who were warm, welcoming and happy, but behind their smiles she could see the struggles they faced.

She watched them work diligently to make a living with so little. Their circumstances stayed with her. She returned home with a strong desire to do something to help and promised herself that she would return. But life happened, and that intention was put on hold. The desire, however, never left.

Over the years, she continued to return to Africa, encountering women and communities and seeing both the challenges they faced and the determination with which they carried on. She read their stories, saw images that told something of their individual journeys and, through her own experiences, witnessed the realities behind those stories.

In 2024, during another visit, something was reignited in her. Seeing the struggles women faced, yet watching them continue to work, care for their families and smile despite having so little, touched her deeply. It truly broke her heart to witness their struggles, yet still see them smile.

She felt a renewed and deep sense of calling to do something meaningful. The promise she had made to herself years before came back into focus — this time with a determination to find a practical way to help.

That commitment has also become practical in more recent times, through providing personal support to women experiencing difficult circumstances.

In 2025, that longstanding passion and renewed commitment led to the establishment of Precious Rural African Women Poverty Eradication Foundation.

PRAWPEF is now being developed with the intention of creating something that can provide meaningful and sustainable support, not simply short-term assistance. Salewa is building the Foundation's organisational foundations, governance framework, initial programmes and partnerships, while listening and learning from the women and communities the Foundation hopes to serve.

Alongside this personal commitment, Salewa brings more than 20 years of professional experience across financial services and operations. Over the course of her career, her experience has extended across project delivery, business analysis, systems, technology, change and transformation, including work within banking, investment, asset management and regulated environments.

This experience has shaped how she approaches the development of PRAWPEF. She understands the importance of structure, good governance, sound processes, accountability, stakeholder relationships and turning ideas into initiatives that can be delivered and sustained.

Salewa has also had the opportunity to work with young people experiencing challenging behaviour. This experience strengthened her desire to see the younger generation find positive direction, make choices that can shape their future and have the support and opportunities needed to fulfil their potential.

The developing focus of PRAWPEF is centred around three interconnected areas:

• Holistic Healing — supporting women through trauma, displacement and difficult life transitions.

• New Beginnings — developing pathways towards stability, opportunity, dignity and renewed hope.

• Empowerment Through Entrepreneurship — exploring practical ways to equip women with skills, confidence and opportunities to develop sustainable livelihoods.

As Founder, Salewa is bringing together something deeply personal with something she knows how to build: a longstanding commitment to African women alongside the professional experience to develop an organisation with strong foundations, appropriate governance and the capacity to grow.

Her God given vision is simple but deeply held — to see vulnerable and displaced African women have the opportunity to regain stability, recognise their worth and potential, and build brighter futures for themselves, their families and their communities.