Our Team

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Hilda is a finance and operations professional with extensive experience in the non-profit sector. She currently is the Finance Lead of an international NGO in Kenya, where she oversees financial strategy, compliance, and operational management. She has held similar roles at Norwegian Refugee Council, DanChurchAid and Cordaid spanning over 20 years.

Hilda is also an active member of the Association of Women Accountants of Kenya (AWAK) and is a Certified Public Accountant of Kenya.

She has served on several Boards, including AWAK, The Cradle, Women Empowerment Link (WEL) and Young Women Leadership Institute (YWLI). She has been actively involved in initiatives aimed at empowering youth and fostering local partnerships.

As the Chair of HODI’s Board, Hilda brings expert financial governance and strategic planning, and provides overall oversight and guidance.

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 managed 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 disasters such as ethnic conflicts 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.

Halima Shuria is a seasoned peace practitioner and development consultant with over three decades of experience in humanitarian and peacebuilding work across Kenya and Somalia. She currently serves as the Executive Director of CamelBell Limited, a consultancy firm focused on conflict transformation and community resilience.

She has worked with Oxfam GB and USAID’s Transitional Initiatives for Stabilization (TIS) program, where she provided strategic guidance on pastoralist development and regional peacebuilding.

Halima is an expert on conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding methodologies and is affiliated with the Wajir Peace University Trust.

Fatuma Adan is a peacebuilder, human rights lawyer, and social entrepreneur. Born and raised in Marsabit, Northern Kenya, Fatuma has dedicated her life to transforming communities affected by conflict, inequality, and harmful cultural practices.

Fatuma is best known for pioneering the innovative Shoot to Score, Not to Kill football project, which uses football as a tool for peacebuilding and social change. Her work has received global recognition: she is a recipient of the Stuttgart Peace Prize and was recognized by the World Economic Forum. Fatuma also won the Commonwealth Points of Light Award in 2018 for her work with HODI in Marsabit.

She now advocates for policy change and community-driven solutions, amplifying local voices in national and international spaces.

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.

John Kisimir is a seasoned communications and community engagement expert with over two decades of experience in humanitarian response, public health, and conservation. 

He currently serves as the Risk Communication & Community Engagement Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Kenya. 
He served World Vision for 11 years, where he held various leadership roles in communications and advocacy. He has worked across Africa in complex settings including South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia.

He currently also serves on Boards of the Conservation Alliance of Kenya and Ten Thousand Villages. John brings a unique blend of storytelling, strategic communication, and grassroots engagement to our Board, helping bridge the gap between our communities at all levels.

Noor joined HODI in 2014 as a volunteer, before working as the program coordinator from 2015 to 2021. He serves as the Executive Director of HODI, leading the organization’s mission to build just, peaceful, resilient communities in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia.

Reporting directly to the Board of Directors, who are overall responsible for the affairs of the organization, Noor oversees strategic direction, programming oversight, organizational development, resource mobilization while ensuring full institutional compliance with regulatory obligations.

His role includes executive decision-making responsibilities, financial oversight, and community engagement. He is also responsible for developing and maintaining robust institutional systems to ensure highly effective operations.

He brings 14 years of experience in the non profit sector and has led HODI to expand high-impact initiatives like the award-winning shoot to score project, complex consortium and cross border projects like IPDHE and ensuring statutory compliance, including independent annual audits for 15 straight years.

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.

She is an experienced community development practitioner and is responsible for the implementation of key projects like IPDHE and Mala Marii and champions community-level safeguarding for volunteers, facilitators, and community members.

With over a decade of experience, Tesso has progressed from field officer to project manager, focusing on peacebuilding, community empowerment, dialogue, and resilience. Tesso has an all round experience with our projects and is now a member of HODI’s Senior Management Team.

Khula Dida is a seasoned development professional with over a decade of experience in community empowerment, governance, and social development. As Program Manager at HODI, she provides strategic leadership across multiple projects, guiding implementation, overseeing staff performance, and ensuring timely delivery of partnership commitments. 

Khula’s connection with HODI began in 2013 when she volunteered mentoring young girls through life skills and peer education. She rose up the ranks as a Field Officer and later advanced to Program Officer before becoming Program Manager in 2016. Her contributions helped lay a strong foundation for HODI’s participatory and inclusive programming model.

She left HODI to gain additional experience with Concern Worldwide and Secours Islamique France, where she led community engagement strategies, supported governance linkages, and delivered other impactful interventions across Marsabit and Isiolo counties. A certified Trainer of Trainers, Khula’s expertise in community conversations has supported transformative engagement in Marsabit and Isiolo counties, where she has led community dialogue in over 190 villages and supported communities to integrate their priorities into county development plans. Khula rejoined HODI in 2025.

Simion is an accomplished development and humanitarian practitioner with over 25 years of experience advancing peace building, community resilience, livelihoods, WASH, gender equality, and social protection in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia.

Simion leads HODI’s Support inter-community peace-building, cohesion and rights advocacy project that is funded by The Christensen Fund, providing technical leadership on design, implementation, and collaboration with diverse stakeholders.

Notably, he led the ADA-funded Women for Peace project at CIFA, which empowered women to take active leadership roles in peace committees, natural resource management, and cross-border dialogue, helping to reduce conflict and open up peaceful markets along the border corridor.

Throughout his career, Simion has successfully facilitated the formation of women-led peace committees, cross-border resource-sharing agreements, and grassroots governance structures that amplify community voices, especially those of women and marginalized groups. He brings extensive experience working alongside multiple partners and funders, including USAID, ADA, DFID, UNICEF, and others.

Mohamed has been part of our team since 2018, rising through roles from volunteer coach to Admin Officer, and has served as Finance Officer since April 2024. He is experienced in finance operations, financial reporting, and administrative systems.

His role includes payroll management, financial reporting and support to project delivery.

Mumina has been part of HODI since 2013, growing from a volunteer coach and community facilitator to her current role as Project Officer in our Shoot to Score project. She has over a decade of experience using football for development and is a trained coach and first aider.

Mumina is passionate about equipping girls with life skills and tackling harmful practices through football. She is involved in planning, reporting, training, and community engagement for HODI’s football sessions, coaches’ meetings, and other activities. She is trainer of trainees (ToT) and supervises our volunteers.

Popularly known as Bashu, she joined HODI in 2014 and has steadfastly supported our team for a decade. Based in Marsabit, Bashu is responsible for management of admin affairs, including cleaning, preparing meals and providing support during workshops. She plays many other roles including advising and guiding our younger members of staff.

Bashu is a top-rated goalkeeper in our staff football matches and has supported our project teams with photography during events.

Halima is a diligent professional supporting procurement and administrative operations at HODI. She plays a key role in managing supplier relationships, coordinating admin operations and ensuring smooth procurement processes. Her strong interpersonal skills contribute to efficient service delivery and compliance with HODI’s operational standards.

Halima began her journey with HODI as a volunteer coach and admin assistant before taking on her current role.

Grace Gumato is a skilled journalist and communications professional with experience in radio, media, and community storytelling. At HODI, she leads communications and social media, documents projects through photography and multimedia. She is passionate about using media to connect grassroots stories with broader platforms.

She previously worked as a reporter and presenter with Radio Jangwani, Biftu Radio, and the Kenya News Agency, where she honed her reporting and editing skills. In 2023, she was ranked the best by the African Women in Media (AWIM) for her story on women’s political participation in pastoralist communities

Habiba is a dedicated Project Assistant supporting the IPDHE cross border project. With experience in communication, community engagement, and coordination, she strengthens local participation in development programs. Before joining HODI, she led outreach for a Moyale community association and contributed to another ADA-funded women’s peace project.