Prospera's Secretariat Team

Laila Alodaat

Executive Director

A seasoned feminist leader with two decades of experience in advocacy, movement building, and a proven track record as a litigator and strategist, Laila Alodaat joined the feminist peace movement through the International Women’s League for Peace and Freedom, where she held different positions and was appointed Deputy Secretary General in 2021. Laila is from Syria, and has extensive experience spans across women’s rights, resource distribution, and effective governance. She has served in various advisory and governance roles, including as a Trustee of the Feminist Review Trust since 2019. Laila holds a law degree from Damascus University and an LLM in Human Rights, Conflict, and Justice from the School of Oriental and African Studies. Laila is a mother of two, a qualified Forest School and Natural Reservation leader, and an active community organizer. 

Amany Alhadka

Director of Finance and Operations

Amany Alhadka has over 20 years of experience working in the areas of Operations, Finance, and Organization Management. Throughout her career, she managed and advised many organizations and field operations in Africa, Asia, Latin and Central America. She is specialized in building and strengthening the operational capacity of start-ups and organizations that are growing and scaling. Prior to joining Prospera as Senior Advisor Operations Excellence she was the Vice President for Business Transformation of the Equality Fund and the Vice President for Finance and Operations of the MATCH International Women’s Fund, both in Canada. She also worked at CARE International in Egypt, USA, and Canada, and MEK Foundation in Egypt. Amany holds a Bachelor Degree in Accounting and a Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Accounting and Auditing from Cairo University. She obtained her Public Accountant Certification from University of Illinois, Chicago and has certificates in training of trainers and meeting facilitation.

Chhavi Doonga

Director of Strategy and Programs

Chhavi holds a master’s degree in Media, Communication and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science where she wrote a thesis on trans-activism in India. Prior to Prospera, she has worked with the Aga Khan Foundation in Badakhshan, Afghanistan and London, UK on strategic partnerships and regional strategy for their core sectors including gender, health and education. Chhavi has also previously worked with community radios from India, Nepal and Bangladesh for a project on rural migration and urban governance at UNESCO. As a Young India Fellow, she worked at the People’s Archive of Rural India with women migrants from Gujarat, Haryana and West Bengal. In her free time, Chhavi enjoys reading and writing poetry.

Kika Frisone Barrera

Director of External Relations

Kika has worked closely in, with and for cultural and social organizations, social movements and activist collectives that focus on queer, LGBTQ+ rights, youth, sexual and reproductive rights, feminist activism, and socio-environmental causes in Ecuador and Mexico. They have been part of social and political changes through legislation, community consultations, political actions, and grassroots activism. Kika strongly believes that the work social movements carry out is changing the world. Their work has focused on institutional communications, strategic communications, and the creation of campaigns in favor of abortion, feminism, sexual and reproductive rights, environmental justice, among others. They hold a double major in Mass Communications and Sociology but is a big fan of films, fiction novels, and a good dose of comics, manga, and anime.

Maria Eugenia Olmos

Senior Program Officer

Euge is a feminist based in her hometown Cordoba, Argentina with over 12 years of experience working for women´s rights organisations and movements in Argentina, Latin America and globally. As a gender specialist, she has worked extensively in the fields of sexual and (no) reproductive health and rights and gender violence, with a focus on organisational development, resource mobilization and international cooperation. Before joining Prospera, Euge worked for FRIDA|The Young Feminist Fund, Catolicas por el Derecho a Decidir (Argentina) and for the Ministry of Health of Cordoba. As an academic, she has been teaching at the 21st Century University, where she participated in the development and incorporation of the first gender studies course to be taught at the University. In her free time she likes to walk through the hills, cooking and being in touch with nature.

Sofia Karakaidou

Senior Program Officer

Born in Greece and based in Lisbon, Sofia is an eternal optimist, feminist and multi-disciplined project management specialist. For the last decade, she has worked extensively in the tech Industry with a focus on communications, marketing and resource mobilization while she has also worked for European Commission’s Directorate General for Budget. Before joining Prospera, she was working as a grant writer and EU funding consultant for social-impact startups and rooting for increasing women’s representation and diversifying funding allocation in the tech world. Her academic interests are focused on Artificial Intelligence data justice and she holds a MA degree in Culture Studies from the Catholic University of Portugal and a BA in English from the Kapodistrian University of Athens. In her free time she likes to read, experiment with art, cooking and taking care of her plants.

Nancy Akanbombire

Program Officer

Nancy is a feminist and passionate about facilitating change in organisations through holistic and human-centered methodologies where people are at the heart of the process. She explores and experiments with feminist approaches, methodologies, and tools in her work. She has expertise in program management, capacity strengthening, and monitoring, evaluation, and Learning. For over ten years, she has led in the design and implementation of programs geared towards organizational growth, feminist leadership and capacity strengthening of women’s rights and feminist organizations. Prior to joining Prospera, Nancy led and managed the Capacity Building Unit of the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF); contributed to the design and implementation of its feminist leadership program which coached, mentored, and nurtured young feminist leaders across Africa and strengthened the governance boards of organizations. She supported in the documentation of transformational stories from young feminist leaders and co-authored “the birthing leaders, stories of change in African women’s organizations” booklet. Nancy holds a master’s degree in Environment, Development and Policy from the University of Sussex, Brighton, and a Development studies degree from the University for Development studies in Ghana. In her free time, she loves to walk, be with family/friends or watch comedy

Camila Vasques Mellet

Program Assistant

Camila is a feminist who has always confronted injustices and inequalities around her even before she knew what feminism was, which led her to study Law and, later, International Relations. Before joining Prospera, she worked as a Lawyer in Brazil for almost 7 years and in 2015 moved to Portugal to pursue a new academic and professional path. She is still working on finishing a Master’s degree in Political Studies, focusing her research on the exceptions and contradictions within democratic systems, especially regarding Human Rights. In her free time, she likes to photograph, watch movies, and go to music concerts.

prospera-womens-fundas

Rebecca Thesiger

Operations manager

Rebecca has been a feminist at heart since she was a kid. She is happily married and has two kids for whom she would like to lead by example. She hates injustices. Enjoys English humor, and crack many sarcastic jokes. Rebecca owned her own successful business until she found her real dream job at Prospera and the feminist wing. She currently oversees all of Prospera’s operations with a much needed sense of humor, contributing to a growingly complex and virtual team.

Elda Hernández

Senior Finance and Contracting Officer

Elda holds a bachelors degree in Politics and Social Management from the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Xochimilco, and a masters degree in Gender and Public Policy from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO-Mexico). Over the past years she has worked as a parliamentary administrative assistant at the Mexican Congress, and with the local women’s funds of Mexico, Semillas and Remisoc. She has also participated in various research projects on social policy in Mexico (UAM-CONACYT). Elda has worked as the Administrative Associate for Prospera, the International Network of Women’s Funds since 2011.

Juana Diaz-Montejo

Senior Accountant

Juana has more than 10 years of working experience in accounting.  Prior to joining Prospera, she worked in the Automotive industry assuming many responsibilities including; Preparing and posting of daily deposits, maintaining petty cash account, preparing miscellaneous cheques as required, and reconciling accounts payable/ receivable ensuring accuracy and compliance. Working for a feminist organization is more aligned with Juana’s values and she enjoys processing payments and performing other accounting tasks and feels she supports the mission of Prospera and its members from her little corner in Ottawa, Canada.