Ngozi Eze

Nigeria

Ngozi Eze has been the Country Director in Nigeria since 2003 and has helped more than 13,000 women forge a future in a country ravaged by corruption and civil unrest. In 2005, Ngozi received the Amelia Earhart Pioneering Achievement Award for making a difference in the lives of thousands of survivors of civil conflict in her home country of Nigeria.

Under her leadership, Women for Women International-Nigeria has implemented a program of direct financial assistance, rights education, vocational skills training and income-generating opportunities. Ngozi has instituted specialized programs to educate women about HIV/AIDS and the harmful effects of some traditional practices, including female genital cutting and widowhood rituals. She also pioneered a men’s training program to sensitize community leaders to women’s rights. In the wake of increased community violence between Christian and Muslim communities in northern Nigeria, Ngozi launched joint training sessions to offer women from both religious backgrounds the opportunity to meet and rebuild their trust.

Ngozi has over 18 years of experience working in both private and public institutions on advancing the status of women and children through international development. Before coming to Women for Women International, she worked in Nigeria with a number of NGOs and private firms, including the Ohio African Trade office based in Lagos.

Berra Kabarungi

Rwanda

Berra has been Country Director in Rwanda since 2004 and has helped more than 4,000 women rebuild their lives after the 1994 genocide.  She grew up as a refugee in Uganda, experiencing the uncertainty of displacement firsthand.  After the genocide, Berra returned to Rwanda determined to be a part of her country’s healing and reconciliation process.

Under her leadership, Women for Women International-Rwanda has implemented a program of direct financial assistance, rights education, vocational skills training and income-generating opportunities. Berra has spearheaded efforts to improve women’s awareness about health and nutrition by making sure that every participant is trained in malaria prevention and treatment. Because of her outreach efforts, Women for Women International graduation ceremonies have become highly lauded community events attended by local officials and the media.

Before joining Women for Women International, Berra worked with the International Rescue Committee assisting women’s cooperatives and associations and was responsible for program implementation, monitoring and evaluation as well as liaising with local government authorities.

Berra completed her studies in Uganda in 1990, specializing in Education and English Literature and has taught at several different secondary schools, both in Uganda and Rwanda.

Christine Karumba

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

Christine Karumba, the Country Director of Women for Women International-DRC, has vivid recollection of the overall growing climate of uncertainty leading up to the country's civil war in the early 1990s and the years of destruction that followed. The trauma of living day by day not knowing if it was going to be your last became an everyday occurrence for many. The affects of war were particularly trying on the women as gender-based violence began to replace armed combat as a war tactic. Women were reduced to mere pawns in a war they had nothing to do with. Christine witnessed what she calls two types of death- the physical and the emotional death. The physical death is where you are no longer alive to walk the earth, and the emotional death is where you no longer see signs of hope and are dead inside. Hope and help are precisely what the Women for Women International program have brought to the women of DRC. Christine has helped more than 8,000 women rebuild their lives after what has been considered the deadliest war in documented African history. 

Under her leadership, Women for Women International-DRC has implemented a program of direct financial assistance, rights education, vocational skills training, and income-generating opportunities and has helped thousands of returnees from neighboring countries and other socially excluded women in Congo gain economic autonomy while raising their political voices in voting in the country’s first democratic elections in over 40 years held in June 2006.

Prior to joining Women for Women International, she worked with Cooperazione Italiano, an Italian NGO; UNICEF; GTZ/Goma in the Democratic Republic; Kapeeka Orphanage and Martha and Mary Ministries Christian Organization in Uganda Kampala. Her experiences include over six years working on community development and gender issues. She has technical expertise on issues ranging from women's rights to project development to monitoring and evaluation. Christine holds a degree from Institute of Rural Development in Bukavu, DRC with an emphasis on rural development.  Additionally, she has a Diploma on Discipleship and Ministry Church Administration from Miracle Bible College Robert Kayanja Ministries in Uganda, Kampala.

Hamide Latifi

Kosovo

Hamide Latifi has been the Director of Women for Women International’s Kosovo chapter office since 2000 and has helped more than 11,000 women rebuild their lives after the war there.  Hamide, a respected journalist, was forced to flee her own home to escape the ethnic cleansing campaign in 1996.  As she fled, she witnessed the terrible toll the war was taking on the land and its people.  She saw villages burned to the ground, women raped and children orphaned.  She escaped to London but returned to Kosovo determined to help her region recover and rebuild. Oftentimes wearing a disguise, Hamide traveled throughout the country in hopes of reporting the true nature of the nation’s atrocities. As rape became a tactic of war and ethnic cleansing, communities were destroyed. The country’s traditional patriarchal systems shun rape victims, and many women were left to fend for themselves.

Under Hamide’s leadership, Women for Women International-Kosovo has implemented a program of direct financial assistance, rights education, vocational skills training and income-generating opportunities. Hamide has been instrumental in developing skills trainings that challenge gender stereotypes, including shoe repair, carpentry, upholstery, bee keeping, electrical repair and greenhouse production. She also introduced literacy and basic education classes to help young women finish schooling interrupted by the war. Women for Women International operates three cooperative stores which sell products made by past and current participants, and Hamide oversees these as well.

Before coming to Women for Women International, Hamide worked with Oxfam as a trainer and was a journalist for many years before that. She graduated from the University of Pristina with a law degree and studied criminal law in her post-graduate studies.

Sweeta Noori

Afghanistan

Sweeta Noori currently serves as the Afghanistan Country Director for Women for Women International. She directs programs that have helped more than 8,500 women by providing direct financial assistance, rights education, vocational skills training and microcredit loans.  In October 2005, she addressed the United Nations Security Council and the U.S. Congress about the challenges Afghan women continue to face.

In July 2004, Sweeta launched the country’s first microcredit lending program targeting women which has since disbursed over $750,000 to approximately 2,700 women. She helps maintain a 99 percent repayment rate. Under Sweeta’s leadership, Women for Women International teamed up with the Afghanistan Ministry of Women’s Affairs to register 2,000 women to vote in the historic 2004 presidential elections and 1,800 women in the 2005 parliamentary elections.

Prior to joining Women for Women International, Sweeta served as an assistant for the Chair of the Loya Jirga Commission in forming the interim administration of Afghanistan and traveled with the delegation to Belgium for talks with donors and representatives of the international community. She has also worked for International Human Rights Law Group and the International Rescue Committee.  During the mid-1990s, Sweeta was forced to move from Kabul to Pakistan, where she worked with the International Rescue Committee on health and agriculture projects. In 2001, she returned to Kabul and continued her work with IRC as a team leader for implementing health and education initiatives in various parts of Afghanistan.

Judithe Registre

Sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo

Judithe Registre is currently the Country Director of Women for Women International-Sudan.  Judithe has been working with us since May 2004 when she launched Women for Women International’s operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Judithe personally understands the reality of being displaced as she and her family fled Haiti when she was 15 years old. She has helped thousands of women emerge from the trauma of rape and sexual slavery to recover their dignity and hope for a better future. 

Under Judithe’s leadership, the Congo chapter office launched a vibrant program of direct financial assistance, rights education, vocational skills training and income-generating opportunities in a region of Congo that has been decimated by the civil war.  Judithe is now in southern Sudan and oversees the launch of operations in a part of the country where women are more likely to die during childbirth than complete primary school.

Before joining Women for Women International, Judithe worked for the International Foundation for Election Systems, International Rescue Committee – Rwanda and Africare in various capacities.  Her publications include “Teach-in on Gender:  Macroeconomics, Poverty, Gender and Policy,” published by UNIFEM in 2002 and “Social Development Reporting in Post-Apartheid South African Media,” published by the Development Resources Center in Johannesburg, 1999. 

Judithe received her Master of Arts in Philosophy and Social Policy from American University and a Masters Certificate in Advanced Social Research from Afrikaans University in South Africa.  She graduated from Boston College with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy.

Seida Saric

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Seida Saric has been the Country Director in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1998 and has helped more than 13,000 women rebuild their lives after surviving rape, forced impregnation and ethnic cleansing, as their bodies were being used as tools of war during the devastating conflict in the 1990s. For more than three years, Seida and her sisters lived under siege in Sarajevo, and she risked her life on a daily basis to provide emergency services to her fellow countryman trapped in the city. Without access to water or electricity and with the constant threat of attack, day-to-day living became minute-by-minute for Seida and the women of Sarajevo.  

Under Seida’s leadership, Women for Women International-Bosnia and Herzegovina has implemented a program of direct financial assistance, rights education, vocational skills training and income-generating opportunities.  Women in the program acquire skills and finance for individual growth and develop a communal growth and understanding as women for various religions and ethnic groups come together. Seida and her staff identify the need to have women from the varying groups meet to tell their stories, and identify the similarities as a means of peace-building. She also oversees Women for Women International’s largest, most successful microcredit program, which has provided loans to nearly 11,700 women totaling approximately $21.9 million.

Before coming to Women for Women International Seida worked at Save the Children and at Care International in various capacities. She studied engineering in university and is currently studying economics.