Inspired Individuals

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Alexander McLean
Location: Uganda
Region: Africa
Sector: Criminal Justice
Alexander established the African Prisons Project (APP) to improve and advocate for the welfare, health and education of detainees in Africa. The project aims to restore the dignity of prisoners by improving detainees welfare, access to medical facilities and providing educational opportunities.
Ann-Marie Wilson
Location: Across Africa
Region: Africa
Sector: Gender Empowerment
In September 2010 Ann-Marie launched 28 Too Many, a pioneering anti-female genital mutilation (FGM) initiative working across 28 countries in Africa.
Caleb Rukundo
Location: Uganda
Region: Africa
Sector: Orphans and Vulnerable Children
Caleb grew up on the streets of Kampala. Today he reaches out to those who live on the streets, to help them on their individual journeys of transformation. In understanding his own route to wholeness, Caleb has designed an intervention that is simple yet transformative, sustainable and scalable.
Cassien Ndikuriyo
Location: Burundi
Region: Africa
Sector: Environmental Sustainability
Cassien established the Help Channel Burundi project to address the massive deforestation of Burundi, which led to the loss of sustainable livelihoods. During the civil war that ravaged the country, Burundi's forests were completely destroyed due to neglect and targeted clearing.

As a response, Cassien has mobilised local communities to plant over 5-million trees as a way to revert the deforestation and promote community healing and reconciliation.
Celia Kaala
Location: Uganda
Region: Africa
Sector: Criminal Justice
Celia established Justice for Children to provide legal aid to the most vunerable in her society. Justice for Children works with various remand facilities to provide counselling and legal representation to the children to ensure they receive appropriate and effective access to restorative justice.
Claude Nikondeha
Location: Burundi
Region: Africa
Sector: Integral Mission
Claude is the founder and chief organizer of Amahoro Africa, a network of African leaders who are committed to the tangible manifestation of justice, mercy and goodness in their local context.

Amahoro Africa connects leaders to each other and helps to facilitate their theological learning and reflection.
Consola Meena
Location: Tanzania
Region: Africa
Sector: Orphans and Vulnerable Children, Gender Empowerment
Consola is a trained social worker and the founder of New Hope for Girls Organisation. Her organisation offers free services to support and protect vulnerable young girls and women against physical and sexual violence.

Consola also works to support women who are victim of other kinds of exploitations such as gender discrimination, mistreatment, underpayment, overwork, etc.

She takes a special interest in supporting domestic workers, who make-up considerable proportions of the female working class in low and middle income countries, and yet have their rights and needs often ignored by employers and government authorities.
Damitha Rajapakse
Location: Sri Lanka
Region: Asia
Sector: Primary Healthcare
Damitha is preserving endangered species of medicinal, food and timber trees in Sri Lanka. He also seeks to preserve the indigenous knowledge of their uses for the benefit of the poor.
David Clemy
Location: Uganda
Region: Africa
Sector: Orphans and Vulnerable Children
David works amongst some of the poorest and most vulnerable in Uganda helping them to transform their communities through economic empowerment and education. David particularly focuses on people with disabilities, widows and orphans.
Dr. SaSa
Location: Myanmar
Region: Asia
Sector: Primary Healthcare
Dr SaSa studied medicine with the goal of establishing a community-wide primary health care system amongst the Chin people, in Burma.

He established a primary health care training centre and has trained over 300 community health care workers from 150 villages. This is the first time these villages are able to access any form of health care provision at community level.
Edwin Fillies
Location: South Africa
Region: Africa
Sector: Integral Mission, Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation
Edwin co-founded Nations 2 Nations ministry of YWAM. He seeks to bring hope to Indigenous groups and promote their culture, while embracing who God made them to be and their unique gifts to serve others.

Having worked with the peoples of Samoa, Fiji, Sami in Norway, Australian aboriginals, Maoris, Malukans and others, God is now using Edwin to reveal the plight of the First Nation people in South Africa.
Ephraim Disi
Location: Malawi
Region: Africa
Sector: HIV / AIDS
Rev Ephraim Disi is the former Bishop of the Brethren in Christ Church, Malawi. He is living with HIV and is one of the founding members of ANERELA+ (the African Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Personally Affected by HIV and AIDS ).

ANERELA+ has a network of 40 ministers and it is an inter faith support group that seeks to uphold the dignity and human rights of people living with HIV. Through ANERELA+ and other projects, Rev Disi is active and involved in multiple HIV projects in Malawi and across the rest of Africa.
Gracia Violeta Ross Quiroga
Location: Bolivia
Region: South America
Sector: HIV / AIDS
Gracia is an HIV positive activist from Bolivia and an expert on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

She is a member of many national, regional and international networks of people living with HIV, and was a founding member of the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS
Heather Costaras
Location: South Africa
Region: Africa
Sector: Gender Empowerment
Heather founded the Beautiful Life Project after years of struggling with low self-esteem and self-hatred, with a view to change her life and follow her dreams.

The Beautiful Life Project unites women who had been struggling with similar issues and creates a platform for them to impact their society. Heather has also founded VENT!, WODOO and Tapestry Of Dreams initiatives.
Joel Tembo Vwira
Location: DR Congo
Region: Africa
Sector: Environmental Sustainability
Joel Tembo Vwira is a social-business entrepreneur living in Goma, DRC. He recognised a social need and business solution to the growing problem of waste disposal in the war ravaged town of Goma, North Eastern DRC. Alongside work in Church and community mobilisation, he established a waste and services company that collects and recycles waste. Joel is now looking at how to expand his social enterprise to other African cities.
John Smith
Location: Africa
Region: Africa
Sector: Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation
John Smith (not real name) is an activist currently working for the advancement of human rights in a very sensitive region of Africa.
Joyce Dube
Location: South Africa
Region: Africa
Sector: Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation
In 2003 Joyce established the Southern Africa Women’s Institute for Migration Affairs (SAWIMA) and has been a tireless advocate on behalf of this vulnerable population ever since.
Kelvin Mwikya
Location: Kenya
Region: Africa
Sector: Criminal Justice
Kelvin is an ex-prisoner. He established Philemon Foundation to address the needs of other ex-prisoners especially to help them reintegrate back into society. His vision is for the engagement of churches across the country as places of refuge, for the establishment of halfway houses across East Africa, and for the total transformation of the Kenyan criminal justice system.
Likoko Eunice
Location: Kenya
Region: Africa
Sector: Gender Empowerment
Likoko works with sex workers on the streets of Nairobi. She has developed a year-long transformation journey that has been tested and shown to work in her local community. They journey starts with friendship and acceptance but goes on to address physical, spiritual, emotional and life-skill needs.
Lindsey Pettit
Location: South Africa
Region: Africa
Sector: Criminal Justice
Lindsey is working to bring hope and a future to juveniles caught on the wrong side of the South African criminal justice system. “Sometimes I feel so expectant about going to prison – it is like going to visit Jesus. I can see the eyes of Jesus reflected through the eyes of a wounded child.” Lindsey is introducing the principles of restorative justice into the South African criminal justice system.
Manju & Lawrence Singh
Location: India
Region: Asia
Sector: HIV / AIDS, Primary Healthcare
Manju Lawrence & Lawrence Singh-India established the Agnes Kunze Society to transform the lives of people living in the slums and for working children in Dehra Dun, India. They provide education and vocational training as well as a broad-based primary health service. They have also set up the first comprehensive ART (HIV) care network for people living with HIV & AIDS.
Musa Njoko
Location: South Africa
Region: Africa
Sector: HIV / AIDS
Musa is a renowned inspirational speaker, HIV positive activist, musician, educator, counselor and entrepreneur. She is one of the first women to publicly disclose her HIV positive status in South Africa.
Naomi Hendricks
Location: India
Region: Asia
Sector: Orphans and Vulnerable Children
Naomi works with a network of churches in Mumbai and across India to help them be agents of transformation in their communities. Naomi and the network of churches work in the slums of Mumbai to especially help transform the lives of children through educational support to those not formally in the education system.
Njihia Njoroge
Location: Kenya
Region: Africa
Sector: Integral Mission
Njihia works with those caught in alcohol addition in Nairobi's slums. As a business-social entrepreneur he opened a bar, that provides a safe environment in the midst of the slum. Here he employs a resident pastor who builds relationships with the clientele. This process encourages relationships as a discipling strategy rather than condemnation.
Nyasha Manyau
Location: Zimbabwe
Region: Africa
Sector: Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation
Nyasha established a ‘community healing’ initiative in Zimbabwe to restore peace, love and dignity to people. She spends time with both the survivors and perpetrators of political violence to listen to their stories and provide them with counseling in order to help them deal with the anger, bitterness and hatred that they feel.
Patricia Mbithe Kyama
Location: Kenya
Region: Africa
Sector: Criminal Justice, Orphans and Vulnerable Children
Patricia established the Tunza Project to give hope and dignity to young offenders and to support them and their families. The organisation aims to reduce re-offending and reintegrate the youngsters into society.
Patricia Sawo
Location: Kenya
Region: Africa
Sector: HIV / AIDS
Patricia is the leader of a church in Kitale, Kenya, and is herself living with HIV. She specialises in gender and women’s issues and public awareness of HIV and AIDS. She was one of the founding members of ANERELA+ (African Network Of Religious Leaders Affected And Infected With HIV), and is the founding member of KENERELA+ (Kenyan Network).
Phil & Rachel Bowyer
Location: South Africa
Region: Africa
Sector: Integral Mission
Phil and Rachel Bowyer are co-founders of Soul Action South Africa which facilitates opportunities for Christians who are passionate about transforming people’s whole lives through integral mission to network, train and work together, in order to serve the poor and marginalised in a sustainable way. Rachel established a child literacy initiative in some of the least resourced communities in the Durban area. As an ex-teacher her initiatives trains teachers in skills to teach literacy to children.
Philbert Kalisa
Location: Rwanda
Region: Africa
Sector: Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation
Philbert established REACH in Rwanda to enhance local capacity for healing, reconciliation and peace-building in communities deeply affected by violent conflict. Philbert is currently expanding his initiative to Burundi and DRC.
Prabu Deepan
Location: Sri Lanka
Region: Asia
Sector: Youth Mobilisation
Prabu is establishing a movement of youth and young people across Sri Lanka to “inspire, sensitize, empower & mobilize youth to be agents of social transformation in their respective communities through activism and volunteerism.”
Sabrina Mahtani
Location: Sierra Leone
Region: Africa
Sector: Criminal Justice
Sabrina established AdvocAid in Sierra Leone to support women on death row who have often being convicted without legal representation, and denied any right to appeal.

Sabrina's vision is to see the end of the death penalty and to advocate for the rights of women in systems where women's rights and access to justice are often compromised.
Stephen Watiti
Location: Uganda
Region: Africa
Sector: HIV / AIDS
Dr Stephen works at the Mildmay Hospital in Uganda as the Senior Medical Officer, treating people living with HIV. Stephen is HIV+ himself so has personal experience of the need to live positively and being able to access the right support. He has a vision for working through faith-based organisations, including the local church, to help them conduct advocacy work on HIV and mainstream HIV work into their core activities.
Sum & Chan
Location: Undisclosed
Region: Asia
Sector: Drug Rehab
Sum and Chan (not their real names) are changing lives through a drug rehabilitation and vocational training center in extremely difficult circumstances which offers life-on-life mentoring, counseling, a community in which addicts can learn to serve, dream and grow, and a program which identifies and develops the potential of each individual to make a difference with their lives.
Theresa Malila
Location: Malawi
Region: Africa
Sector: Integral Mission
Theresa established Somebody Cares to work with pastors, community leaders and communities to bring about community wide transformation. She pioneered an approach that has brought over 1500 churches of different denominations as well as traditional leaders together in 260 villages.
Tinashe Chitambira
Location: Swaziland
Region: Africa
Sector: Environmental Sustainability
Tinashe is one of the founding members of AfricaWorks, which helps communities to establish viable agri-businesses to improve the livelihoods of those impacted by HIV and AIDS, in particular rural women and orphans.
Tracey Webster
Location: South Africa
Region: Africa
Sector: Orphans and Vulnerable Children
Tracey has founded many initiatives to respond to the orphan crisis in South Africa. Tracey currently heads up the Richard Branson School of Entrepreneurship, as well as being an active member of the Desmond Tutu Fellows which comprises of young emerging leaders across the African continent.
Vardan Tadevosyan
Location: Armenia
Region: Eastern Europe
Sector: Primary Healthcare
In 1999, Vardan moved to Nagorno Karabagh to establish the first Rehabilitation Centre in war torn Stepanakert.
Vincent and Grace Munyosi
Location: Uganda
Region: Africa
Sector: Integral Mission
Vincent and Grace minister in a predominantly Muslim community. Instead of trying to gather together converts, they focused on community transformation. They restored the water supply, introduced better farming methods, sponsored livestock for widows and orphans, rebuilt the primary school, and facilitated community wide health education. Through this transformational work many people’s lives are transformed holistically.
Wangu Kanja
Location: Kenya
Region: Africa
Sector: HIV / AIDS, Gender Empowerment
Wangu is a survivor of sexual violence and the founder of Wangu Kanja Foundation, which seeks to provide practical support, hope and healing to survivors of sexual violence.

OUR INSPIRED INDIVIDUALS

Inspired Individuals