A JASS founder and former board member, Hope has gone on to play a huge role – on the ground and on the page – in shaping the power of JASS’ program in Malawi. Always alive to the potential for creativity to shake things up, Hope asks unexpected questions, shattering the mold of mainstream-NGO workshops and inviting HIV-positive activists into holistic processes that have healed, empowered, and galvanized them.
A sociologist by training, Hope holds an MA in Development Studies with a focus on women’s studies. After a start in the corporate world, feminism opened Hope’s eyes and she joined the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Zimbabwe “a changed woman.” Later, recognizing the need for women’s autonomous spaces, she became a founding member of the Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre and Network. Her experience includes periods working with European funders and the UN, before she set up her own consulting organization.
As a renowned gender equality activist and consultant, and an organizational development expert and strategist, she has supported a great many African and international justice groups, working in most African countries from Ghana to South Africa and serving on the boards of the Global Fund for Women and Urgent Action and on the working committee of the African Feminist Forum.
