Our Team
- Renaldah Mboje
Different seasons, different hats! Renaldah Mboje, since 2018 has been wearing the hat of an unpaid Family and Community Caregiver (UFCCG) among other things. Renaldah is the primary caregiver of a relative who is ailing from a non-communicable-disease (NCD) which since 2022, rendered her disabled among other challenges. In addition to supporting the relative, she also supports other people who like her, are family and community caregivers. Renaldah is currently involved in the Care Innovations project of the University of Nairobi through the ARUA Project – https://uonresearch.uonbi.ac.ke/news/arua-center-excellence-non-communicable-diseases-cluster-research-excellence-core-ncds working on developing a Policy for Caregivers of NCDs in Kenya.
Renaldah has over 20 years working experience and expertise in international development through both international and local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), high level interactions with governments, the United Nations as well as the private sector. Her expertise revolves around Advocacy, Gender, Youth, Education, Governance, Disability, Inclusion and Safe guarding Programming. Some of the highlights of her work include serving as the Pan African Coordinator for the International Movement of Catholic Students – IMCS Pax Romana AFrica ; Advocacy Officer for Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations – https://gfd.org.gh/Regional; East Africa Regional Manager for Leonard Cheshire Disability – https://www.leonardcheshire.org/; Eastern and Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Policy and Advocacy Advisor for Voluntary Services Overseas; https://www.vsointernational.org/ and the National Manager for the Whole Youth Programme of Zizi Africa Foundation – https://ziziafrique.org/ . Renaldah has served in several policy-making boards and committees including as a member of the Gender and Technical Committee (2010 – 2012) of the then National AIDS Control Council/National Syndemic Disease Control Council – https://nsdcc.go.ke/ ; a member of the Kenya Ministry of Education National Technical Committee for Policy on Learners and Trainees with Disability (2016-2018) – https://www.education.go.ke/ and a member of the Kenya National Committee for development of the National Integrated TVET Communication and Advocacy Strategy (NITCAS) in 2021 – 2023 – https://ziziafrique.org/promoting-tvet-for-youth-employment-a-pathway-to-economic-empowerment/. Additionally, she has served in various boards including as the deputy Chair of the Board of Trustees of the International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS-Pax Romana) since 2013; Chair of the Board of Management of Bura Girls High School – https://www.tatuweb.co.ke/buragirls/index.html (2017-2022) and since 2023 she is the Chair of the Board of Governance for Ofafa Vocational Training Centre – https://www.facebook.com/OfafaVTC. Renaldah is the Managing Director of the Silver Star Resources Africa, a social enterprise that among other things supports youth and small scale organic farmers to thrive.
Renaldah has an MA in Armed Conflict and Peace Studies; a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication and a Bachelor’s Degree in Education including several other professional certificates.
Advocating with and for unpaid Family and Community Caregivers is Renaldah’s current passion.
- Judy Chege Ndungu
Judy Chege-Ndungu is a Counseling Psychologist, Trainer & Youth Workforce Development Specialist. She runs her private psychotherapy practice (Light A Candle Counseling Services) which she established in 2020 after 23 years in employment.
In addition to offering personal therapy, Judy runs two support groups. One is the Family Caregivers Support Group which launched in January 2022 and now has over 190 members. The other is a Grief Support group launched in February 2023.
Previously, Judy was a Senior Technical Advisor, Career Development Specialist at RTI International in the USAID funded Kenya Youth Employment & Skills Project. She also served as Head of Internships at Kenya Private Sector Alliance in the World Bank funded Kenya Youth Employment Project. Judy also worked as the Head of Counseling Department at Vision Institute of Professionals.
Judy’s areas of expertise include mental health as well as designing and implementing school-to-work transition programs. Judy is an author of a book ‘Lifted from the Pit of Brokenness and Despair’, a true story of how making wrong choices in life left her battling depression, attempted suicide and how she overcame it all. She has also co-authored a book ‘Youth Unemployment – a ticking time-bomb’.
Judy holds a MA in Counseling Psychology (USIU-A), BA Psychology (USIU-A), Higher Diploma in Human Resource Management (IHRM) and is a certified Career Development Specialist (NCDA).
- Dr Munyaradzi Saruchera
Dr Munyaradzi Saruchera is the Director of the Africa Centre for Inclusive Health Management (formerly the Africa Centre for HIV/Aids Management) located in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He currently teaches the module on Ethics, Leadership and HIV/Aids Management at postgraduate diploma and master’ level, and supervises masters, doctoral students and postdoctoral research fellows.
Dr Saruchera is an Ashoka Fellow since 2009 and a Stellenbosch University Research & Innovation Strategic Excellence (SUNRISE) Fellow (a future professors programme at Stellenbosch University). He is qualified with an Honours degree in Political and Administrative Studies, a master’s degree in policy studies and a PhD in Sociology (Stellenbosch University). With more than 30 years of professional experience, Dr Saruchera has worked in the social change innovations, critical community development, community-based natural resource management, biodiversity conservation, health equity and management sectors across different regions of the African continent He has also founded and managed a development consultancy firm for 10 years, offering a range of research, monitoring and evaluation, development and management advisory and social process facilitation services.
Dr Saruchera has published various policy briefs, popular materials, scholarly articles and book chapters on a range of topics and edited the book “Securing land and resource rights in Africa: Pan-African perspectives” His research interests are the sociology of health with a focus on socio-ecological dynamics of health like climate vulnerability and health, African traditional health knowledge, corruption and health, community development and social change. Dr Saruchera is passionate about critical community development and social change, health and environmental ecologies, mentoring, men’s emotional literacy and inner personal development work. He serves on the No Name Initiative Governing Board, Collective Leadership Institute of South Africa Board, the Society for AIDS in Africa’s (SAA) ICASA International Steering Committee, and he is a member of the SAA ICASA Abstract Mentorship Programme Committee and the Society for AIDS in Africa Journal (JSAA) Committee and many social causes.