Freely In Hope
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Freely In Hope

ABOUT US

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Equipping survivors and advocates to lead in ending the cycle of sexual violence.

We are survivors, advocates, scholars, and leaders who live freely because we are no longer victimized by the pain of the past. Together, we are getting closer and closer to the day sexual violence is history—believing that hope is always present.

Freely In Hope

MISSION

Equipping survivors and advocates to lead in ending sexual violence.

Vision

Ending the cycle of sexual violence.

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founders note

OUR VALUES

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Dignity

We believe that dignity is inherent to humanity and it cannot be taken away by poverty, violence or oppression.

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Authenticity

We believe that authenticity builds bridges of hope between our scholars, staff and communities worldwide, allowing up to find collective healing through our shared stories.

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Transparency

We believe that financial, relational and programmatic transparency is essential to promoting social responsibility and ending systemic injustice.

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RESTORATION

We believe that restoration from unspeakable trauma is possible through a supportive community that provides quality care, compassionate action, and advocacy for justice.

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TRANSFORMATION

We believe that transformation is a result of long-term, survivor-centered solutions that uplift survivors as community leaders who have the power to change systems toward justice.

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LIBERATION

We believe that liberation is a holistic experience of mind, body and soul that invites survivors and advocates, students and professionals, men and women, to work together in ending sexual violence.

Our Team

global leaders

Nikole Lim

Founder + International Director, US

Lydia Matioli

Program Director, Kenya

US

jean nangwala

Lead Storyteller, US

Kenya

Precious Musee

Operations Manager

Joan Ngaruiya

Program & Impact Manager

Freely In Hope

Pauline Wanja

Social Worker

Sarafina Njoki

Malkia Program Coordinator

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Mercy Mueni

Malkia Peer Educator

Koki

Child Protection Coordinator

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Beryl Injeni

Accountant

Zambia

Magdalene Chikanya

Child Protection Coordinator

Salomy Siachumbu

Community Educator

Bupe Mwaba

Community Educator

Our BOARD MEMBERS

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Suzanne Semenye

KENYA

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Akinyi W. Ooko-Ombaka 

KENYA

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Bigad Shaban

US

Mwazilinda Chilongo

ZAMBIA

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Master Chimbala

ZAMBIA

PRESS

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Our Financials

We know it’s important that your donation is used effectively. That’s why we work hard to receive the highest grades available for accountability and transparency.

2024

2024 Annual Report
990 Report

2023

2023 Annual Report
990 Report

2022

2022 Annual Report
990 Report

2021

2021 Annual Report
990 Report

2020

2020 Annual Report
990 Report

2019

2019 Annual Report
990 Report

2018

2018 Highlights

2017

2017 Highlights
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FREELY IN HOPE TEACHES ON BEST PRACTICES TO ENDING SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND HAS FACILITATED WORKSHOPS ALL AROUND THE WORLD.

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JOIN OUR COMMUNITY

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Nikole Lim

Founder + International Director

Nikole Lim is a speaker, educator, and author of the book, Liberation is Here. Nikole shifts paradigms on how stories are told by platforming voices of the oppressed–sharing stories of beauty arising out of seemingly broken situations. Her heart beats for young women whose voices are silenced by oppression and she desires to see every person realize the transformative power of their own story. As the Founder and International Director of Freely in Hope, Nikole has been deeply transformed by the powerful, tenacious, and awe-inspiring examples of survivors. Their audacious dreams have informed her philosophy for a survivor-led approach to community transformation. Nikole graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Film Production from Loyola Marymount University and a master’s in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary. She is a student in Embodied Contemplative Psychotherapy through the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science. She is a native of the Bay Area and can often be found buying African fabric on the streets of Nairobi.

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Lydia Matioli

Program Manager

Lydia is passionate about building platforms for survivors and advocates to be leaders in their communities. Born and raised in Kibera, East Africa’s largest slum, Lydia has experienced the effects of sexual violence, lack of education, and poverty first hand. Now, as Freely in Hope’s Program Manager, she coordinates, designs, and implements programs that exemplify best practices on ending the cycle of sexual violence. Lydia graduated with first class honors in Bachelor of Arts in Gender, Women and Development studies and has 6 years experience in program design, implementation, and community outreach. She loves seeing survivors unlock and fully live out their potential.

Jean Nangwala

Lead Storyteller

Jean Nangwala is a singer, speaker, survivor-advocate, and creative content producer. She was born and raised in Lusaka, Zambia. Her passion for social justice stems from her personal experience of injustice and witnessing the same inequality across the globe. She has an undergraduate degree in Psychology and a minor in Media Studies. During her undergraduate studies, Jean volunteered with a juvenile facility in Cape Town, survivors of sexual violence in Nairobi, and creatives using art for community transformation in Barcelona. She has also worked with The Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission in New York City. Partnering to End Human Trafficking in Connecticut and is currently working as the Lead Storyteller for Freely in Hope located in the Bay Area. Through her experiences, she has witnessed the gravity that broken systems can have on the lives of the vulnerable. Her passion is empowering women to come together and alleviate systems that perpetuate social injustice. She loves using art to inspire others to find liberation. To learn more, check out her YouTube Channel, Tales of a Black Girl.

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Joan Ngaruiya

Counselor

Joan’s great passion is working with people who have been through traumatic experiences. She supports their journeys toward healing—ultimately helping them rediscover themselves as strong dignified individuals. As the Mental Health Specialist at Freely in Hope, she brings with her over 10 years of experience. She believes in empowering survivors through varied trauma-informed interventions, to help raise the next generation of survivor-leaders who will champion the end of violence. Joan graduated Magna Cum Laude from Daystar University (Kenya) with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. She is certified in various therapy modalities like TF-CBT, and recently became a certified TRE provider® Outside of work, she loves reading a good book and enjoying some quiet time.

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Pauline Wanja

Social Worker

Pauline is passionate about seeing every woman respected and dignity restored. As the Freely in Hope Social Worker, she ensures our scholars are holistically supported to thrive. She also works under the Malkia Outreach Program—providing a safe space for women in prostitution. As a survivor and a mother, she is passionate about seeing every woman understand their purpose in life despite what they have gone through. Using her life experience, she loves mentoring women in prostitution and those that have been abused. Pauline is a mother to a handsome boy in his third year of high school. She loves cooking, playing card games with her son, meeting new people and giving hope to women in prostitution.

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Sarafina Njoki

Peer Educator

Sarafina is passionate about ending prostitution in Kenya’s slums. Having worked in the streets, she truly understands the risks and challenges of prostitution. She dreams of creating a safer world for women and girls who work in prostitution by helping them realize other options of work based on the different skills they possess.

As Freely in Hope’s Peer Educator, Sarafina visits Nairobi’s brothels and clubs to reach out to women in prostitution and encourages them to join the Malkia program where they can co-create a safe space to share their experiences with each other, drive the process of rehabilitation, and assume ownership over their lives. When not working, Sarafina enjoys baking and spending time with her son.

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Koki

Child Protection Coordinator
Koki is passionate about empowering communities to make informed choices on how to prevent and respond to sexual abuse by creating and sharing trauma-informed resources. She has four years of survivor leadership experience co-creating curricula and content that have been used to teach children and teenagers to prevent and respond to sexual abuse. As our Child Protection Coordinator, she uses her creativity, public speaking, and leadership skills to create and lead programs that help children understand body autonomy, sexuality, and how to recognize and report sexual abuse. She also equips parents, caregivers, practitioners, and the general public with relevant knowledge to help them prevent and respond to child sexual abuse.

Inspired by her desire to support others just as she was, she obtained a degree in Social Work. Koki is also a Freely in Hope alumni, class of 2021. In her spare time, she enjoys writing and is quite an accomplished poet. She is a doting aunt to her beautiful niece and enjoys fanning her dream of being a model.  
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Beryl Injeni

Accountant

Beryl is an experienced accounting and finance professional with 8 years in the industry. She has been involved in leading and managing financial operations of various organizations. Her degree is a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance and she is also a Certified Public Accountant registered with the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Kenya.

Beryl is passionate about helping organizations with good accounting practices, financial management and compliance as a whole.

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Magdalene Chikanya

Freely in Hope Fellow

Magdalene is a Freely in Hope Fellow pursuing her BA in Community Development. In addition to designing, leading, and developing the strategy of Super Girls Revolution with Freely in Hope, she has worked with organizations included Poetice and Young Women’s Christian Association, giving her 5 years of experience in community development work. From Zambia, Kenya, South Africa, and the United States, Magdalene has worked in multiple countries and cultures to share her story as a survivor of sexual violence and forced prostitution. From her her own story of brokenness, she desires to give other girls life, hope, and an undying smile.

Salomy Siachumbu

Peer Educator

Salomy is passionate about preventing sexual violence and ending child marriages in her community. Her goal is to study Psychology and become a Psychotherapist so that she can continue working and impacting lives in her community. Salomy has been a member of Super Girls Revolution since 2019 and is now a Peer Educator.

Bupe Mwaba

Peer Educator

Bupe is passionate about ending early marriages in her community because she has witnessed many girls being forced into marriage without consent. She has experience working with children as a caregiver in her community. She has been a longtime member of Freely in Hope’s Super Girls Revolution programs in Zambia, and knows first-hand what being a part of Super Girls Revolution means—a life-changing experience that gave her a platform to learn about empowerment. Being a Peer Educator at Freely in Hope gives her an opportunity to impact girls in her community and prevent child marriages so that girls can achieve their dreams at their own pace.

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Suzanne Semenye

Suzanne Semenye is the Founder and CEO of Verde Group Ltd, a bespoke marketing solutions agency in Nairobi, Kenya. She started Verde Group as an umbrella company to engage in transformative market-driven projects that are in line with her passion of improving women economic status, self awareness, business acumen and self advancement. Previously, Suzanne co-founded The Grass Company, a youth-centric, market research firm where she worked as a Director of the company for over 10 years. She is a well rounded professional with 12 years experience in qualitative insights, strategy, business management and development, team management, project management, communication development and market engagement. In the course of her work, Suzanne has consulted for various local, regional and global clients such as PEPFAR, Nation Media Group, Safaricom, Nike Foundation, Kimberly Clark, Nokia, RAB Group Malawi et al. In the past, Suzanne has worked as an Account Manager at Access Leo Burnett, a communication agency, and for Instant Grass Trend Forecasting, a South African firm. Suzanne has experience working with both public and private sectors. She has served as a volunteer panelist for various initiatives targeting young people. Suzanne is an alumni of the Mandela Washington Fellowship Program as well as the Launch And Grow Business Program for women in entrepreneurship. She currently serves on the board of PR Firm Ditshego Media PLC (South Africa). Suzanne is a graduate from University of Nairobi, BA in Sociology and Communication and is currently studying for her Masters in Business Administration at University of South Wales, UK.
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Akinyi W. Ooko-Ombaka

Akinyi W. Ooko-Ombaka is an educator and operations manager at Lynk, a leading technology platform that connects thousands of informal workers to households and businesses across Nairobi. She spearheads Lynk Academy that enables workers to Get Better Everyday through training, assessment, and capacity building. Since joining Lynk in 2019, she’s managed and overseen the training of over 100 professionals, and led key initiatives to increase work wellbeing e.g. COVID-19 Cash Transfer Project, Insurance Benefit Programs, asset financing and more. Further to the Academy, she manages Lynk’s external relationships and is responsible for sourcing new project opportunities to pilot, test and scale. She recently managed a KES 8 M grant through DFID’s Kenya Catalytic Job Fund. Akinyi also supports the daily operations of Lynk’s B2C offering, and is responsible for managing 10 staff, developing strategic initiatives for 6 departments, and ensuring teams achieve the company’s strategic milestones such as generating income for workers during this pandemic through special projects like the Safe Hands Kenya Public Spaces Initiative. With 5 years of experience in program management, training, and operations, her previous work includes building operational capacity for fast-growing companies like Lori Systems to build operational capacity, consulting with INGOs like UN-Habitat to pilot Africa’s first semi-aerobic landfill, and developing vocational curriculums that have been delivered to marginalized and refugee communities in Kenya, among others. Motivated by her passion for equity, justice and access, she continues to explore and engage individuals and organizations that seek to tap and develop opportunities using Africa’s largest and most underutilized resource, its youth. She is an alumni of the Alpha Chi Omega, a fraternity devoted to cultivating impactful communities for women to connect, lead, grow and serve, and whose key philanthropic initiatives are driven by Domestic Violence awareness. She’s been a part-time volunteer with Freely in Hope since 2018.
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Bigad Shaban

Board Member

Bigad Shaban is a senior investigative reporter at NBC Bay Area. His influential and in-depth reports have earned him the most prestigious awards in broadcast journalism, including the Peabody, duPont-Columbia University Award, and six Emmys.

Bigad’s work has prompted government hearings, police investigations, and changes in state and local law. As part of a two-year investigation into the misuse of campus police officers, Bigad exposed a disturbing trend within the education system that captured the attention of top White House officials and spurred security changes across 34 schools – impacting 67,000 students.

Bigad’s reporting has taken him all across America and abroad – from covering flood concerns in Pakistan, to leading covering of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London as a network correspondent for CBS News. Bigad has previously worked in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and eastern Iowa. He is now based in San Francisco.

Mwazilinda Chilongo

Zambia

Mwazilinda has worked in the project management space focusing on Juvenile Justice social support and advocacy for 4 years. She has also worked in the legal fraternity as her academic background is in Law. Currently, Mwazilinda is a project officer at a community-based NGO, which is a Zambian human rights organization focused on assisting juveniles in conflict with the law through legal representation, social support and advocacy. Her primary role is to achieve their project deliverables by leading internal communications, planning, and implementing project activities and reporting. With a legal background and experience, Mwazilinda has developed a deep sense of understanding of the complex legal issues and challenges faced by children and other vulnerable groups and what legal positions are open to them. Mwazilinda’s exposure to maligned and vulnerable minorities has also etched a desire to align her career to developmental, advocacy, and social work. In this regard, she is pursuing a Master’s degree in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Lusaka.

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Master Chimbala

Founder + International Director

Master Chimbala has journeyed through various encounters of challenge, success, failure, loss, win, pain and hardship.His pivotal foundations rooted in characteristics of excellence over 20 year ago when amidst chaos, scarcity and deprivation he fostered new hope, resilient character, critical thinking and a uniquely engineered lifestyle. Master Chimbala has passionately served as a Transformational Trainer, Life Coach, Inspirational Speaker and Strategic Consultant for different organizations, communities and projects in intercultural and international spaces

Stacy Mwaura

Survivor Care Supervisor

Stacy is skilled, experienced, and passionate about working in spaces that give people opportunities to fully thrive knowing that they are loved, seen, and cared for. She is a versatile, goal-oriented Program Lead with experience supporting the strategic direction of people projects, setting and monitoring budgets, and managing teams while achieving overall organization goals and exceeding expectations. Stacy is a multi-talented team leader and player, excellent at building effective and productive working relationships across the divide. Stacy is currently taking a Master’s degree program in Counselling Psychology to apply psychological theories and principles to developing work systems, cultures, and programs for people to thrive from a place of health. She focused on increasing productivity in teams through sustainable work systems and culture to achieve overall organization goals.

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