Firelight welcomes five new African leaders to our Board of Directors
Firelight is thrilled to announce the addition of five new members to our Board of Directors – Joyce Malombe, Rose Maruru, Sibongile (Bongi) Mkhabela, Paula Nimpuno-Parente and Gerry Salole. All five of these extraordinary African leaders come to Firelight with a history of extensive accomplishments and a deep belief in the critical need to support communities and community structures as fundamental agents of systems change for children and youth in Africa.
Their expertise is invaluable to Firelight, and we are truly humbled that they have joined us as we continue to raise capital to support the agency and capacity of catalytic local community-based organizations and their communities and build and share the evidence of the value of local solutions that strengthen systems for children in Africa.
“Despite their dynamism and critical contributions to Africa’s wellbeing, community-based organizations across the continent remain largely invisible, unrecognized, and under-resourced. Few funders match their easy talk of supporting Africa’s development with the difficult walk towards dismantling prevailing colonial structures within philanthropy and putting money and power in the hands of community-led organizations. Yet, such organizations are at the forefront of tackling some of the continent’s most intractable challenges. Firelight Foundation’s commitment to walking the talk is therefore both bold and inspiring. I am especially thrilled and honored to be joining the Board at this pivotal moment as Firelight Foundation embarks on moving its centre of gravity from North America to Africa,” said Rose Maruru.
“It is an absolute privilege and honour to have been considered for this service. I have followed the work of Firelight with a deepening interest and I am convinced that this organisation is sincere in its quest for relevant African solutions and in its commitment to people driven development,” said Bongi Mkhabela.
"It is my pleasure and I look forward to serve in the board of the Firelight Foundation, an organization whose vision and theory of change is similar to my own: changing lives and well-being of children and communities and being committed to strengthen community organizations who are closer and impact directly the lives of children and communities positively and long-term," said Paula Nimpuno-Parente.
“Firelight’s conviction that local communities are likely to have better understanding of the issues they are grappling with and are best placed to identify solutions is what has attracted me to serve this board. I am delighted have joined a group of serious trustees and staff that are determined to ensure both that Firelight builds on its extraordinary legacy and makes this fundamental and necessary pivot from an organisation that did for and to Africa to one that validates the knowledge, know-how and agency on the continent,” said Gerry Salole.
Detailed biographical details for all new board members are below.
Joyce Malombe is the Interim Program Director for International Children’s Education at the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund. Prior to joining Wellspring in January 2012, Joyce worked as a consultant for several organizations and held numerous positions including Program Officer for Education at ELMA Philanthropies where she started and led programming in nine Southern Africa Countries. Joyce worked with the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program as Director of Africa and Middle East and Coordinator Leadership for Social Justice program in all 22 Ford Foundation country offices. She additionally served as a Senior Scientist at the World Bank as well as an Associate Professor and Senior Researcher at the Southern New Hampshire University and the University of Nairobi. Joyce has served in a number of nonprofit boards in different capacities. She has more than 25 years of experience, receiving a BA and MA from the University of Nairobi and a PhD from the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
Rose Maruru is the co-founder and chief executive officer of EPIC-Africa, an organization that seeks to increase the impact of philanthropy in Africa by filling in critical data and capacity gaps in the philanthropic market infrastructure. She is a board member of Niyel, an impact-driven campaign, advocacy and public affairs firm. Rose has worked for almost 25 years in the philanthropy and civil society sector, managing strategic partnerships, developing strategies, mobilizing resources and building organizational capacity. Prior to founding EPIC-Africa in 2015, Rose held various management and leadership positions at the Population Council in New York, the Coalition for Children's Rights in Yemen, and Save the Children in the Gambia, Egypt and the US. Rose was also the director of operations at TrustAfrica, where she successfully led the organization's efforts to continuously improve its strategies, processes, and structures and to maintain its high standards of performance, transparency, and accountability. Rose has a bachelor's degree in government and literature from the University of Nairobi in Kenya, a post-graduate diploma in American Studies from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and a master's degree in development management and planning from L'Institut Africain de Développement Economique et de Planification (IDEP) in Dakar.
Sibongile (Bongi) Mkhabela is a social justice activist and a trained social worker. She has extensive experience in Public Policy, Community and Institution building, Philanthropy, Fundraising and Developmental Grant-making. She is the former Chief Executive Officer of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund where she served for 21 years and built a significant endowment. She championed, alongside Mr. Mandela and Mrs. Graca Machel, the establishment of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital, the 5th Children Hospital of its kind in the African continent. A fellow of both the Rockefeller Center in Italy and Duke University School of Public Policy, North Carolina USA, Bongi is also a recipient of the prestigious National Order of Luthuli (Silver) awarded by the President of South Africa, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa in 2018. She was also recently recognised by the French government with a Knight of the French National Order of Merit (Chavalier de l’Ordre national du Merite) for her work in social justice. She holds an honorary Doctorate in Philosophy awarded by the Nelson Mandela University in 2019 (NMU).
Paula Nimpuno-Parente is currently an independent consultant who specializes in international and entrepreneurship development, building social and economic assets and increasing financial inclusion and opportunities for women, young people and low-income households. Paula is passionate about helping to develop social policies that are transformative and increase opportunities towards human development and moving people to economic independence. For 13 years, Paula was a Program Officer at the Ford Foundation, responsible for the development of program strategies for financial assets including the design of livelihood opportunities to increase the well-being of vulnerable households and program strategies for young people’s empowerment through a gender and equity lens. Paula’s grant-making program also helped develop social protection policies and explored how policies could be transformative and address the complex causes of economic security and human development. Prior to Ford, Paula worked for 13 years at the Bernard Van Leer Foundation as a Program Specialist and as a Research Associate at the Institute of Social Studies. Paula has done extensive research on gender and the informal economy in Thailand and Kenya, focusing on access to livelihood finance, low-income housing markets and wage/employment opportunities. She serves in a number of nonprofit boards in southern Africa and Internationally.
Gerry Salole is currently an independent consultant. Previously he was the Chief Executive of the European Foundation Centre (2005-2020). Gerry has worked for the Ford Foundation, The Bernard van Leer Foundation, Save the Children Federation, Redd Barna (Norwegian Save the Children), and OXFAM UK. Gerry is the founding chair of TrustAfrica and sits on the Supervisory Board of the European Cultural Foundation, The Impact Trust, The Advisory Board of the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition, the Wits Centre for Philanthropy and Social Investment, The International Advisory Council of Afrobarometer and is the Strategic Advisor to the Africa Europe Foundation. He holds an M.A. (Econ.) and Ph.D. from the University of Manchester, and a B.A. in Social Anthropology and African History from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.