She was born in Kenya and then completed a bachelor's degree at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, and a master's degree at American University in Washington, D.C. She spent fifteen years working with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and then launched a digital gaming development business to create a learning platform for teaching life skills to youth through mobile phones.
She aimed through the games to have youth question their beliefs in regard to topics such as sexual consent, exploitation and violence; environmental protection; and conflict resolution.
In 2022, she began working for UNAIDS with the goal of eradicating AIDS in Africa by 2030 by ensuring that those infected with HIV received treatment and were therefore unable to transmit the virus.
[3][4] Her mother was a primary school teacher before becoming a writer and entrepreneur,[3] and her maternal grandfather was Davidson Ngibuini Kuguru, former member of parliament for the Mathira Constituency and Minister of Home Affairs.
She continued that the loss of workers, either because they were infected by HIV/AIDS or were engaged in caregiving, had heightened food shortages and lowered family incomes while decreasing the ability of governments to meet developmental goals.
[12] Working under regional efforts to create solutions for the AIDS epidemic, Shongwe was one of the editors of the book, Turning a Crisis into an Opportunity: Strategies for Scaling up the National Response to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in Lesotho (2004).
[11] Professor Courtenay Sprague described it as a manual to prevent people who are uninfected from becoming infected and to assure that those who have the virus receive proper care and treatment.
[10][16] Her mother was confused as to why she wanted to leave stable employment with the United Nations, but Shongwe felt that it would allow her to make a positive change without having to deal with all the bureaucracy involved in international development work.
[18] Shongwe hired recent university graduates in 2009, to help her design a business plan and began to engage with producers to commission games.
[16][21] Her work to use games as a focus on human rights and social change[20] led Shongwe to become one of three African finalists in the Cartier Women's Initiative Awards in 2010.
[20] Two games developed by Afroes, Haki 1 and Moraba won their categories, respectively Go Green and Power 2 Women, at the World Summit Youth Awards held in Montreal, Canada, in 2012.
[20][22] That year, Moraba was selected as the winner in the category of Social Responsibility and Development for London's Meffy Awards, presented by the Mobile Entertainment Forum.
[28][23] In 2013, Shongwe was one of two Africans, the other being Njideka Harry of Nigeria, who were distinguished as Social Entrepreneurs of the Year by the Schwab Foundation and World Economic Forum.
[18][29] Haki 2 received the 2015 PeaceApp Award from the UNDP and United Nations Alliance of Civilizations initiative which recognises digital games that promote conflict resolution and peacebuilding.
[39][40] At the Higher Education Aids National Youth Conference that year, she addressed the problem of trading sex for marks on university campuses.
[41] Of particular interest were changes to government programmes aimed at growing large businesses, as they excluded small and micro-enterprises engaged in by women entrepreneurs.
[44] Shongwe stated that poverty, inter-generational relationships, sex work, and violence cause higher infection rates for women,[45] but also stressed that men were less likely to be tested or treated, and if they sought treatment were less likely to continue with long-term care.
[46] She urged continued diligence in the region, stating at the end of 2023 that Botswana, Eswatini, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe were on the path towards meeting the goal of eliminating AIDS by 2030 because 95 percent of those living with HIV were in treatment and had reached the stage where the virus could no longer be transmitted.