Tonify is a registered charity and limited liability company. Founded in March 2018, the company is based in Mainz, Germany. The verb “tonify” means to give strength or energy. Thus, we aim at empowering people through language and literacy. More than one third of African adults are illiterate; two thirds of them are women. Our vision is to provide adult literacy in Africa.
Tina Heinze
is managing director and language trainer at Tonify. She studied African Studies at Humboldt University in Berlin as well as in Accra, Ghana and holds a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Gutenberg University in Mainz. Before founding Tonify, she has been teaching English and German at Mainz University of Applied Sciences and international companies as well as literacy for adults at a community college in Mainz. In addition, she worked several years as project coordinator in Germany, France, Egypt, Ghana and Guinea.
Sawudatu Zakariah-Akoto
is Africa coordinator and community worker at Tonify. She has a social science background and holds a Ph.D. in Public Health from the University of Ghana. Over the past 20 years she has worked as a researcher at Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research. Her Ph.D. project used community engagement approaches to improve women’s diet in rural Northern Ghana. Her interests are in promoting basic needs such as health, food security, gender inequities in food systems and literacy in deprived rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.