In this Hybrid Event, at either The Fred Hollows Foundation Office in Auckland or online on Zoom, hear from and explore questions around empowering local partners and communities, the dynamics between local actors and international institutions, and the role of faith in development. 

Sam London, Council for International Development, will facilitate this session featuring Maame Brodwemaba Nketsiah and Dr Debbie Singh, directors of the Baha'i International Development Organization.  

• Maame Brodwemaba Nketsiah earned a Master’s in Population Health from Harvard University’s School of Public Health. Her career spans health, education, and community development, with experience at the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the Millennium Villages Project at Columbia University, and Innovations for Poverty Action.  Since 2018, Ms. Nketsiah has served as a Director of the Baha’i International Development Organization, where she focuses on creating systems for sharing knowledge and resources for individuals, groups, and institutions worldwide, involved in development.

• Debbie Singh is a medical doctor with a Phd in Public Health who has an interest in maternal and child health, childhood trauma and mental health of young people. She has worked in India and Uganda and Aboriginal Health in Australia. She and her husband founded the Kimanya-Ngeyo Foundation for Science and Education that provides science-based education in Uganda that assisted young people to use their education for the betterment of their communities. She is currently serving as a director of the Baha'i International Development Organization.

About the Baha'i International Development Organization:

Worldwide, there are scores of nongovernmental Baha’i-inspired social and economic development organizations as well as tens of thousands of development activities and projects undertaken by Baha’is and other collaborators. These efforts fall along a spectrum of complexity and address an array of challenges in areas related to education, literacy, health, the environment, support for refugees, the advancement of women, empowerment of junior youth, elimination of racial prejudice, agriculture, local economies, and village development. The Development Organization will carry forward this work on an expanding scale and at higher levels of complexity.

Photo by: Save The Children, Location: Nepal, Credit: Harikala Khadka/Everest Club