Chikuhwa is presently based in New York as senior program officer in the United Nations Office for Children and Armed Conflict. He advocates with the countries of the Security Council for stronger protection measures for children in such places as Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sri Lanka, and Colombia, and is working to implement a global mechanism to monitor and report on grave child rights violations in these and other conflict zones. He is driven by his personal encounters with children ravaged by warfare.
In May 2009 he brought his perspective on the world to Macalester’s graduates as the Commencement speaker. As he says, “Once you have been with the children, it is not possible to turn your back on them.” He also received Macalester’s Charles J. Turck Global Citizen Award.