There is an old saying that has followed me for a long time: if you don’t know where you are going, any road will seem like the right one. When I applied for the Civic Hive Tech fellowship for the second time, I was determined that this would not be the case. I came with a direction. I came with Trully Verify Africa. What I did not expect was how much the journey would reshape the map itself. 

The fellowship sessions have been a series of quiet revelations. Conversations on strategies for a shrinking civic space, artificial intelligence, gender, rethinking social accountability, and effective communication have made me look at my own work differently. Not just what I am building, but why it matters and who it must speak to. 

“Building the tool is half the battle. How we tell the truth matters as much as verifying it.” 

That is one of the most important things I am leaving these sessions with. Trully Verify Africa exists to close a trust gap and to verify what needs verifying in a world where misinformation moves faster than accountability. But the fellowship has forced me to ask harder questions. Who are we building for? What does accountability actually look like in communities where civic space is contracting? How does gender shape who gets to be heard, and who gets to be believed? 

What has struck me most, though, is the community. Sitting in sessions with builders in Civic Tech, people grappling with similar problems in different contexts have been unexpectedly grounding. There is something powerful about realising you are not alone in the work, that the frustrations you carry are shared, and that the solutions others have found might illuminate a path you had not considered. 

That exchange of thinking is what I will carry forward. The fellowship has not just helped me refine a product, but it has helped me find a community of people who understand why this work is necessary. 

What comes next is building with more intention. Trully Verify Africa was always about scale, but now scale means something more specific to me: reaching the people who need verified information most, in the places where trust is hardest to earn. The fellowship has given me clearer eyes for that work and the reminder that clarity of purpose is not a luxury. It is the foundation.

Author: Ruhamah Ifere | CivicTech Fellow