Vera Yaona Kamtukule

Vera Kamtukule is a life and leadership coach; a writer and a key note and motivational speaker who has dedicated her life to the development of people especially women and girls of all ages across the world. She achieves this by employing unequivocally non-conventional methods which inspire people to draw motivation from deep within themselves in their quest to achieve both large and small goals they never imagined were possible. Vera is the a former Chief Executive Officer for Malawi Scotland Partnership (MaSP), which is a national network which was established to inspire, support and coordinate mutually beneficial civic links between Malawi and Scotland. Even though she is not a Member of Parliament yet, Vera is now the Deputy Minister of Labour having been appointed onto the position by President Dr Lazarus Chakwera on 8th July 2020; she is the youngest female member of the cabinet. 

Vera is a prolific writer and published author, an accomplished development planner in Malawi with more than 14 years’ experience in senior programme management obtained from working with central and local government, local and international NGOs, and public and private sector organizations in Africa and Europe. Vera is also the founder of Patch Malawi, a youth centered social enterprise company that was set up to balance and strengthen linkages among social, economic as well as psychological needs of people in Malawi. Vera has experience in designing and implementing development projects in both rural and urban settings across Malawi. She has skills in policy analysis, budgeting and strategic planning, and has substantial experience in informal settlements regularization. One of Vera’s greatest skills is fast writing, document editing and summarizing bulky documents into concise and precise versions of the original without missing critical facts. 

Vera has published the following books: ‘The Supply and Demand of Housing in Malawi’, ‘Made to Bloom’, ‘The Professional Woman’, ‘The Absalomic Loss’, ‘It’s Your Choice to Make’, ‘29 Things That Destroy ‘Good’ Men’, ‘41 Things That Destroy ‘Good’ Women’ and she Co-authored ‘More Than A Pastor’s Wife’ with Reverend Comfort Adebayo. Vera won the African Authors Award in July 2020 for her book, ‘Made to Bloom’ in the Women Empowerment category. In December 2020, Vera also received an African Achievers Award for her social advocacy role in Malawi. 46% of girls under 18 in Malawi get married and drop out of school, thus putting enormous pressure on government to provide basic social services. To respond to this social ill, Vera embarked on a project called, “One Girl At A Time” in November 2019. Through the project, Vera intends to distribute her award-winning book “Made to Bloom” to every public secondary schools going girl across Malawi. The main objective of the project is to inspire girls to stay in school and make something out of their lives and also to nurture a reading and writing culture in them. Over 10,000 books have since been distributed for free. As an advocate of women’s rights and girl’s education, Vera believes that the opportunities that can be leveraged from girl’s education are enormous and incalculable.

Vera has a Master of Science Degree in Strategic Management obtained from the University of Derby, UK, a Bachelor of Arts Degree (Humanities) from the University of Malawi, Chancellor College, a Professional Diploma in Marketing (CIM, UK) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Land Management and Informal Settlement Regularization obtained from Erasmus University in The Netherlands. Vera sits on several Boards as a Director. Vera is a member of the Presbyterian Church of Malawi Ministries (PCM) and is married to Edson Kamtukule with whom she has two daughters.