Board of Directors
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Director & Chair
Anthony Zwi grew up and was schooled in South Africa where he also studied Medicine (MB BCh Witwatersrand), occupational health (DOH Wits), and tropical health (DTM&H Wits).
Director, Founder & CEO
Growing up in Freetown, Sierra Leone with her father, Aminata had a blessed life and was known as the girl who lived in the big yellow house on the hill.
Director & Treasurer
Blair is a financial services leader with more than 25 years of international experience in senior roles across London, New York and the Asia-Pacific region. Currently, Blair has three roles at Royal Bank of Canada.
Director & Digital, Brand & Communications Advisor
Kat Hartmann is a change agent. She helps brands transform social, content and digital through strategy and insights.
Director & Fundraising Advisor
With ten years of experience, Simon is a fundraising professional who has worked across a broad swathe of fundraising areas, raising millions for the organisations he has worked for. He currently works in the philanthropy team for Oxfam Australia.
Director & Fundraising Advisor
Yolanda is currently the Executive Director, Commercial Enterprise, Fundraising and Communications, Vinnies NSW. She has close to 25 years’ experience in commercial operations, communications & media, fundraising, strategy development and implementation, community engagement.
![Let us virtually travel to Aberdeen Women's Centre during our 2019 visit - our CEO @aminata_conteh_biger with the Dream Team as pictured above
Here in Sydney as we find ourselves in an extended lockdown due to COVID-19, we can appreciate the access that Australians have to quality healthcare, warmth and shelter provided in our humble abodes (and the ability to stay connected via Zoom calls during periods of reduced face-to-face contact!).
In celebrating the 2021 United Nations World Population Day today, at the Aminata Maternal Foundation we are reflecting on how the rest of the world is managing with compromised health care systems. The area of sexual and reproductive health in particular is impacted as many countries are experiencing concern over changing fertility rates. United Nations Population Fund (formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities [UNFPA]), emphasises that educational, economic and political empowerment of women enables autonomy and control over choices regarding their body.
Did you know, only 55% of women have the power to make their own decisions about their bodies? The current pandemic has exacerbated gender-based inequities, notably in Sierra Leone as the teenage pregnancy rate continues to rise. During the Ebola crisis, teenage pregnancies in Sierra Leone saw a 66% increase and it is anticipated that another surge will result from the COVID-19 crisis. To combat this our Dream Team project collaborates with the Aberdeen Women's Centre located in Freetown, Sierra Leone to provide support to re-integrate teenage mothers into their communities post-birth.
References for further reading🌏:
https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-population-day
https://aminatamaternalfoundation.org/mission/our-projects/the-dream-team/](https://aminatamaternalfoundation.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
