Our Story
MAMA HOPE founder Nyla Rodgers finds hope when visiting the community in Kenya that her late Mother had called family.
MAMA HOPE was founded in 2008 by Nyla Rodgers who was inspired to start the organization after a work trip to a community in Kenya that her Mother was supporting. While she was not previously aware of her Mother’s connection to the community, she recognized the deep understanding community members and leaders had of their dynamics, circumstances, and priorities.
Nyla set out to bridge the gap between these organizations and the resources needed for effective community development, granting more people access to healthcare, education, hygiene, equitable employment, and youth engagement programs.
Over the past sixteen years, MAMA HOPE has invested around $5.1 million into locally-led development, positively impacting 5.6 million people and creating 1,496 jobs through partner work. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, 94% of the locally-led organizations (LLOs) we’ve worked with continue to operate, generating $268k through sustainability projects, thereby reducing donor dependency.
MAMA HOPE has in the last few years transitioned from being a U.S.-based team to one primarily based in East Africa. This strategic shift brings the team closer to the communities our partners serve, providing an enhanced understanding of their daily dynamics and challenges.
Our Collaborative Community
MAMA HOPE is more than an organization; we’re a collaborative community dedicated to facilitating the impact of early-stage locally-led grassroots organizations. Our partners are the lifeblood of our mission – organizations with equitable and representative leadership deeply rooted in the communities they serve. In the last 15 years, we have worked with over 33 locally-led organizations
Our stakeholders, comprising our team, board of directors, technical advisors, donors, developmental organizations, multilateral agencies, philanthropic networks, and strategic allies, form a tight-knit network committed to driving positive change. Together, we envision a world where underserved communities gain access to vital resources, fostering healthcare, education, proper hygiene, equitable employment, and transformative youth engagement programs.
Our Family
Meet the passionate individuals driving MAMA HOPE’s mission:
Operations Team
Our team is a diverse group of experts with a shared commitment to supporting local changemakers.
Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors guide our strategic vision and ensure the organization’s integrity.
Our Partners: Change Makers, Dreamers, Visionaries
MAMA HOPE partners are made up of early-stage locally-led grassroots organizations with equitable and representative leadership.
The people served are the individuals residing in these underserved communities, who lack access to vital resources such as healthcare, education, proper hygiene and opportunities in the form of equitable employment, and youth engagement programs.
We work in service to these organizations and individuals who share our values is central to creating sustainable change. Our partners contribute to the strength and resilience of the communities we serve.
Our Values: Love, Partnership, Integrity & Transformation
Our work is underpinned by the fundamental belief that community needs are best addressed by community members themselves. Shared perspective, language, culture, and lived experiences are crucial to identifying key challenges in creating sustainable change and building community resilience. This belief is operationalized through the creation of strong partnerships rooted in the four key organizational values of love, partnership, integrity, and transformation.
Our Manifesto: Shaping a Visionary, Collaborative Future
We believe in creating a world where each individual has access to the resources they need to live happy and healthy lives. We believe in creating an organization that will change the way that the world sees poverty, enable visionaries to use their passion to change the world, and shift the power structures of development from the top down to eye level. True change comes from the shift from leadership to partnership. We are not interested in creating change through our partners, instead, we are invested in supporting our partners to have broad access to people, networks, and connections way beyond MAMA HOPE, and to achieve this our work focuses on building the systems in place for success.
Our Strategic Priorities
All of MAMA HOPE’s work is carried out under four (4) strategic bucket areas. While many of our goals are cross-cutting, Organizational and Financial Health generally guide our internal operations, and Program and Advocacy Health are relevant to our external-facing work.
Navigating Challenges, Ensuring Impact:
Our Adaptive Approach
While our commitment remains unwavering, we acknowledge that external factors influence our journey. Global challenges – from climate-related disasters to war and socio-economic strife across continents – policy changes, and ever shifting social trends pose opportunities for change. We continue navigate these uncertainties through continuous learning, understanding, and active pivoting. Our resilience lies in refining the organization, ensuring adaptability in the face of evolving landscapes recognizing the privilege we have in carrying out our work, we understand that agency is not to be taken for granted.
The last couple of years post-COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter (#BLM) movement have prompted introspection within our organization. In response, we recently implemented significant changes, such as shifting our operational base to East Africa, bringing us closer and more accessible to the local communities we serve. Our team has also undergone a drastic reduction in size, but our passion remains unwavering in honor of the original mission set out by our founder and her commitment over the last 15 years. Our task is to use this privilege conscientiously, working towards making the world a better place, guided by our values of love, partnership, integrity, and transformation.