My name is Michelle 

In 1984 there was a famine in Ethiopia that shaped the way I would live out the rest of my life. It came as a response to my owned lived experience of poverty because of the mental illness that often incapacitated my father. It caused me to declare to my mother that “One day I’m going to be a missionary to Ethiopia.” And that I did. In 2011 with five children, we moved from New Zealand to Ethiopia and served with a local Mekane Yesus Church in Debre Zeit. It was there that I saw the discrepancy between the International Aid organisations and the locally led solutions that were highly underfunded but extremely effective in the line of service they offered. B4A Collective was a vision of mine after my first marriage broke up in 2016. B4A stands for Beauty for Ashes. It’s what I believe we can collectively bring when we all play our part in restoring the lives of those experiencing poverty for whatever reason that may be: mental illness, climate issues, country of origin, trauma, imprisonment, lack of education, grief and loss. I truly believe that together, we can change the world.