Our Team

Said Jillo

Vice Chairman of the Board

Said Jillo is a hotelier by profession. He joined Kenya Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC), a government parastatal, in 1974 and served in several game lodges. He worked at Meru Mulika lodge between 1974 and 1990, Mt Elgon lodge between 1990 and 1993, and Marsabit Lodge between 1994 and 1998.

Said was appointed and later elected as the chairman of Kenya Red Cross, Marsabit branch in 2006. In this capacity, he served communities in Marsabit during multiple ethnic clashes, the Torbi massacre, and droughts between 2006 and 2014. 

He has since served as a member of the Land Control Board, as a member of the council of elders and as a village elder. He has been on the Board of HODI since 2015.

Catherine Gicheru

Member of the Board

Catherine Gicheru is an International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) Knight Fellow and founder and head of the Africa Women Journalism Project (AWJP). Catherine was the first woman bureau chief and first female news editor of the Nation Media Group and the founding editor of The Star daily. She co-founded East Africa’s first budget and public finance fact-checking and verification initiative, PesaCheck.

She is a member of the Media Development Investment Fund board, is an advisory board member of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford, the Aga Khan University’s Graduate School of Media and Communications and the British Council’s Future News Worldwide program. She is also a member of the IWMF Online Harassment advisory board. Catherine advised on the Open Society Foundations’ Fiscal Governance Program and the ICFJ’s State of Technology in Global Newsrooms survey. She is a jury member for the WAN-IFRAAfrica Digital Media Awards and served on the European Journalism Centre’s MoneyTrail jury.

Catherine is a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, a Reuters Institute Journalism Fellow at Oxford University and a 1992 IWMF Courage in Journalism award winner.

Chachu Tadicha

Member of the Board

Chachu Tadicha has over 20 years of experience managing humanitarian and development programs in Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Haiti.

He has held senior management positions in various organizations such as Concern Worldwide, COOPI, CIFA, Save the Children and FARM Africa. He is an expert in rural development and has extensive experience in strengthening national organizations and rural communities.

Noor Abdulqadir

Executive Director

Noor joined HODI in 2014 as a communications liaison officer, before working as the program coordinator for four years. His current role involves the day to day running of the organization, fundraising and representing the organization in important forums.

Tesso Dido

Project Manager

Tesso has been with HODI since 2015, when she worked as a field officer in our community conversations project. She used a motorbike to reach remote communities around Hurri hills for one year, before returning to Marsabit to work as a project officer on two of our projects. Tesso has an all round experience with our projects and is now a senior member of staff.

Farhiya Hassan

Finance Officer

Farhiya has experience working in accounting and general finance for over 10 years. She has worked extensively in the private sector and brings on board financial management expertise. Farhiya is a CPA finalist.