Yana Spencer

Yana Spencer is a journalist, women's rights activist and the founder of Tamu Bakery - a non-profit empowering survivors of gender-based violence.

Through Tamu Bakery, Yana has run empowerment workshops with hundreds of women in over 15 countries where it is dangerous to be female. She has been privileged to work with such inspirational women as Maasai girls in Kenya affected by FGM and forced marriage; Kosovan widows - survivors of rape as a weapon of war, victims of incest in Sri Lanka and sex-trafficked girls in Vietnam and Nepal. This pioneering work has been recognised with a Women of Peace award and was featured in Cosmopolitan magazine. Yana charts her journey of discovery of women's lives on her Cake Hour blog and is a sought-after speaker and trainer on the issues of women's empowerment and gender-based violence, talking at universities and special events in many countries including Sri Lanka, Japan, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Sub-specialties:
Rape as a weapon of war - I worked in Kosovo with Muslim widows who were survivors of such war crimes and am now witness to such abuses in my own native land, Ukraine.

Psycho-social activities to overcome traumatic GBV experiences - through my social enterprise, Tamu Bakery, I have developed baking therapy techniques to help women to heal from gender-based violence.