° Executive Director
° Board of Directors
° Advisors
° Staff



Zeinab Eyega, MSc,. Ms. Eyega is the Executive Director and Founder of Sauti Yetu (meaning Our Voices in Swahili). Sauti Yetu is an advocacy organization, seeking to empower women to exercise, advocate and protect their rights. It is based is NY and works on Sexual and Gender-based Violence. Previously, Ms. Eyega was a program director for The African Immigrant Program at Research, Action and Information Network for Bodily Integrity of Women (RAINBO). A program she started in 1995 through a pilot project that examined the needs of circumcised women and girls in New York City. Ms. Eyega, is from southern Sudan and received her BA from the School for International Training in Vermont and a graduate degree in Health Policy from the New School University. Her published work includes "Facts and Fiction Regarding Female Circumcision/Female Genital Mutilation: A Pilot Study in New York City". She has contributed to the development of Caring for Women with Circumcision: A Technical Manual for Health Care Providers and "Female Genital Mutilation: A Guide to Worldwide Laws and Policies". In addition to teaching and public speaking, Ms. Eyega has facilitated numerous cross-cultural competency workshops for health care providers and reproductive health promotion seminars for African immigrant and refugee communities throughout the United States.

Her areas of work include but are not limited to issues gender, race and ethnicity in the Afro-Arab border lands and women's protection and rights in conflict, post conflict regions of Africa. [back to top]

We will introduce our Board of Directors soon. [back to top]

We will introduce our Advisors soon. [back to top]

Asmaa Donahue, Senior Program Officer. Ms. Donahue is the author of Sauti Yetu’s report, Female Genital Cutting and African Immigrant Women and Girls in the United States:  A Policy Review.  She has co-authored several research papers on the impact of poverty and armed conflict on women and children which have been used as background papers for UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children, Progress for Children: A World Fit for Children Statistical Review  and The Machel Study 10-Year Strategic Review.  Before joining Sauti Yetu, Ms. Donahue was a regional research coordinator for the Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action, a gender rights advocacy organization in Beirut, Lebanon.  She speaks Arabic and has a Master of Arts in International Development from the New School Graduate Program in International Affairs in New York.  [back to top]

Ramatu Bangura, Program Manager.  Ms. Bangura brings to Sauti Yetu an expertise in youth work and curriculum develop for at-risk adolescent girls.  Previously, she served as Outreach & Education Coordinator at GEMS, the Director of Community Education at the DC Rape Crisis Center in Washington, and worked with youth and families at risk as a Peace Corp volunteer in Costa Rica.  Ms. Bangura speaks Spanish and has earned a Master’s of Education from Teacher’s College, Columbia University with a focus on gender and African Education. 

Marie Malle, LMSW, Program Officer is the licensed social worker on site.  Ms Malle provides overseas the social service which includes but is not limited to individual and group counseling, and working with parents. She received her Masters degree from New York University. She is from Paris, France, where she previously worked as a clinical Psychologist working mostly with children and adolescents. She had a private practice and also work part-time in an out-patient child mental health service in a public hospital in France. Ms. Malle brings to her work expertise in Psychology combined with social work to support the women and families at Sauti Yetu

Kathleen Durst, MA, LMSW, Social Worker/Field Instructor.   In addition to her work with Sauti Yetu, Ms. Durst is the Training Specialist and Lead Field Instructor for the Children of the World Program of NYU School of Social Work’s Immigrant Child Welfare Project.  She has previously served as the Program Director of Parent Partners Family Support for Immigrant Families and as the Project Coordinator of the TeenScreen Suicide Prevention Program, both at Columbia University.  She has a Masters in Social Work from Columbia University, a Master of Arts in Psychology from Southern Connecticut State University, and a Bachelor of Science in Communication Disorders from Florida State University. 

Assiatou Diallo, Administrative Assistant

Anthea McLachlan, Book keeper

Interns and Volunteers

Kathryn Fair  - Social work

Margaret Gitua – Social Work

Kathryn Mack – Social Work

Kadijato Lo – Administrative intern & Interpreter

Ramatu Ahmed – Community Liaison

Augusta Okpea- Outreach coordinator

Ramatu Oukpedjo - Intern/interpreter

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