Our People

Sarai Chisala-Tempelhoff is a human rights and social justice lawyer and legal researcher.

She is a Senior Legal Researcher and Founder of the Gender and Justice Unit a social justice and gender equality initiative that hones in on legal empowerment in Malawi. Her research focus is on women and access to justice, and the particular intersections between the letter of the law and women’s lived realities.

Sarai currently serves as the Project Director of Engender Health’s Essential GBV Services and Prevention project in Malawi. Previously, she served as the Director of Gender and Women’s Rights, Malawi Human Rights Commission. With over fifteen years of experience, Sarai has worked with various organisations across the globe including UN Women, GIZ, UNICEF, the World Justice Forum, and the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa. Sarai has also served in leadership roles as the Former President of the Women Lawyers’ Association of Malawi, and other leadership roles in the HIV Justice Network, and the Malawi Law Society.

A trained Lawyer, Sarai holds a Bachelors in Law (LLB) Honors from the University of Malawi, a Master of Laws (LLM) with specialisation in Human Rights and Democratization from the University of Pretoria and a Postgraduate Certificate in Gender and Women’s Studies from the University of Memphis.