In 1984, a famine in Ethiopia profoundly influenced my life. As a six-year-old, I witnessed the extreme hunger on the news and felt a deep sense of injustice. This experience resonated with my own struggles with poverty, stemming from my father's mental illness that hindered his ability to work. After spending 14 years in South Auckland and raising five children, my family relocated to Ethiopia to serve with a local Mekane Yesus Church in Debre Zeit. Living there for five years, I realized that famine was just one aspect of a much larger cycle of poverty. I observed the disparity between international aid organizations and the locally-led, underfunded solutions that were remarkably effective. 

Arriving in Australia as a single mother with four teenagers, I faced the challenges of adapting to life in the West while dealing with food insecurity and housing issues. It was the local organizations that highlighted the vital role social impact groups play in supporting individuals during difficult times. Unfortunately, witnessing these locally-led organizations struggle due to lack of funding reignited my sense of injustice, leading me to establish B4A Collective.

I believe that with this discrepancy in funding where the top 5% of charities in Australia receive 87% of the billions of dollars in revenue, that it is time to make a shift and that collectively, we have the power to change those statistics.