Our Leadership

Gill Garb, Executive Director

A native South African, Gill Garb brings a 20-year track record of developing innovative education and HIV and AIDS prevention, care and treatment programs in Namibia, South Africa, Uganda, Swaziland, and Mozambique. As the Regional Director and then HIV and AIDS Senior Advisor to World Education, Gill used evidence-based strategies to test new approaches in HIV and AIDS programs, and championed an integrated, comprehensive approach linking literacy, health, livelihoods, leadership, community awareness, and policy to mitigating the HIV epidemic.

Under Gill's leadership, World Education's HIV projects in Africa grew to a total of more than $20 million, and HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and care were mainstreamed into all World Education programs in Africa.

As Gill watched the AIDS epidemic leave millions of children orphaned and vulnerable (OVC), particularly in southern Africa, she noticed that while vast resources were invested in mitigating the HIV epidemic, few actually trickled down to the communities caring for children. Instead, she developed a model focused on making necessary technical and management investments in people and organizations already caring for children in communities where they live.

Gill launched the Bantwana Initiative in 2006 to help orphaned and vulnerable children—and their care-givers—access the full range of support and integrated care they need to grow into healthy adults.

Susan Kajura, Chief of Party, Children First Project, Zimbabwe

Susan Kajura leads Bantwana's Children First Project in Zimbabwe. Driven by her passion for children, Ms. Kajura brings over a decade of professional experience to Bantwana. She has worked on diverse projects including HIV and home-based care, access to education, institutional capacity building, as well as monitoring and evaluation.

Ms. Kajura has been instrumental in designing and implementing innovative OVC projects in Uganda. Prior to joining World Education and Bantwana, Ms Kajura was the Executive Director of Uganda Women's Effort to Save Orphans (UWESO). Among her many accomplishments, Ms. Kajura successfully led her team through an organizational restructuring process that resulted in the improvement of the quality of care services to more than 70,000 OVC in Uganda.

Ms. Kajura has also worked on national OVC issues. She provided guidance for the implementation and monitoring of the OVC National Strategic Plan initiated by the Ugandan government ministry responsible for child welfare. She has also worked extensively with communities and civil society organizations in developing and implementing HIV and AIDS programs around thematic areas such as education, youth, capacity building, and home based care in Uganda.

In 2002, Ms. Kajura was awarded the MacMillan African Writers Prize as the Most Promising New Children's Writer for Africa.

Meshack Thulani Earnshaw, Swaziland Country Program Manager

Thulani Earnshaw is the Country Program Manager for the Bantwana's BSIP and CBO initiative for OVC in Swaziland. Mr. Earnshaw has previously served as a coordinator for Bantwana's project activities in Swaziland. He brings more than 10 years of community-based experience in strategic planning, marketing, livelihoods development, and capacity building.

Prior to his appointment at Bantwana, Mr. Earnshaw worked extensively on poverty alleviation and micro enterprise projects with diverse community groups in Swaziland. He successfully assisted new companies in the design, set up, and expand small businesses and community entrepreneurial projects. As Program Manager, he successfully mobilized and trained community groups in business and entrepreneurial skills for projects ranging from small cooperatives to commercial business ventures in Swaziland.

Mr. Earnshaw received his MA in Sustainable International Development (MA SID) from the Heller School of Social of Policy and Management at Brandeis University in 2006. He is a recipient of the Joint Japan World Bank Graduate Program Scholarship Award. He also serves as an advisor to several business institutions the Pilot International Study center in Swaziland.

Edton Babu, Uganda Capacity Building Advisor

As the Uganda Capacity Building Advisor, Edton Babu builds and strengthens the capacity of community organizations to streamline interventions targeting orphans and other vulnerable children.

Mr. Babu brings a decade of experience in civil-society strengthening and management of HIV prevention, care, and support for OVC programs. Mr. Babu has supported civil-society organizations (CSOs) as well as government agencies with technical expertise for effective implementation and management of HIV and OVC projects. As a senior member of the Technical Support Project funded by USAID and the CORE Initiative, Mr. Babu played a key role in the rolling out of the OVC policy on behalf of the Ministry of Gender Labor and Social Development (MGLSD) in 11 districts in Eastern Uganda.

Mr. Babu has also worked for Uganda's Society for Disabled Children as a Field Coordinator, where he was responsible for capacity building and provided oversight for community projects dealing with children. Mr. Babu holds a Masters in Management Studies (MMS) from the University of Makerere in Uganda. He is also the founding member of an adult education program in Kampala, Uganda.

Farai Charasika, Senior Program Manager/Technical Advisor

Farai Charasika is a Zimbabwean physician who has worked as a hospital clinician, public health physician, and community development worker. Working extensively with urban and rural communities in East, West, and Southern Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East, he has mobilized international and grassroots communities to action for public health and development goals.

Dr. Charasika's experience and expertise in health, community development and training spans a wide spectrum of public health and development issues. These include, hospital based patient care, health systems strengthening, and community-based interventions in HIV & AIDS, malaria, maternal and child health, as well as reproductive health. He has also worked with communities to develop programs on issues such as nutrition, education, livelihoods and economic strengthening.

Farai coordinates the technical and management aspects of part of the Bantwana portfolio. He also serves as one of the senior technical advisors for HIV and AIDS at World Education. He has a medical degree from the University of Zimbabwe Medical School and a Master's in International Health Policy and Management from the Heller School at Brandeis University.

Ronald Mutasa, Regional Advisor

A native of Zimbabwe, Ronald Mutasa, brings a decade of leadership and program management experience at the community, national and regional levels in southern Africa. As a staff member of the Canadian International Development Agency and the United States African Development Foundation, Ronald worked extensively on community-based development programs that helped HIV and AIDS-affected families meet their basic needs in East and Southern Africa. Ronald helped to launch and measure impacts on income, nutrition, access to treatment, and education for children. Ronald also brings deep experience in program evaluation in Tanzania, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe.

In 2004, Ronald was awarded the Southern Africa Poverty and Development Fellowship for the Master of Arts in Sustainable International Development at Brandeis University. He also holds a second Masters in Public Administration from the University of Zimbabwe. In addition, Ronald has contributed to several research papers and to the improvement of development management tools. Currently Ronald works as an operations officer/consultant for the World Bank's Africa region.

Tom Haslett, Strategic Advisor

Tom has spent much of his career managing equity investments for institutions in large developed markets and frontier markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Starting in 2002, following his passion to work on 'mission-driven' ventures, he adapted his management, strategy, and business skills to social development programs in Africa.

After leading a team to build a youth service program engaging 18-25-year-old South African men and women to work in the state-run schools of Gauteng province in Johannesburg, Tom shifted his focus to addressing the challenges of Sub-Saharan African children who were orphaned and made vulnerable by AIDS. Tom married his passion for investing and African social development in two new ventures: development of the African Healthcare Fund, and start up of the Bantawna Initiative.

As a senior advisor, Tom works with Bantwana teams on strategy and program development in Boston, and in Bantwana's focus countries in Africa.

Sandy Hessler, Strategic Advisor

Sandy brings more than 20 years of experience building brands for companies and nonprofit organizations. Over the past twenty-three years, Sandy has served as an adjunct professor at Tufts University teaching leadership, entrepreneurship, and communications. Most recently she taught "Marketing for Social Change" at Tufts University. Sandy is currently the Assistant Dean and Director of Career Advancement at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.