Speaker Spotlight: Lindiwe Chaza Jangira

Lindiwe Chaza Jangira Activist, Founder of Pink Butterfly Trust

“In the current climate, refugees face life-threatening risks, heartbreaking losses and constant judgement. However, the culturally enriching effect that they have on the resettlement countries is like no other. It is integral to understand the process, the people and our relationships with them.”

Lindiwe Chaza Jangira was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia, now Harare, Zimbabwe. She received a Master’s degree in International Political Economy and Development from Fordham University. She had a United Nations career spanned 13 years, most of which were spent managing programs for child protection in countries in conflict in Africa.. Later, she helped direct a more urgent response to the HIV and AIDS Epidemic, the epicentre for which, was in southern Africa. She spent the next 13 years leading the civil society advocacy for more sustainable support to people living with HIV and leading national policy developments. In that effort to bring to the forefront of national and international policies, she became a familiar figure in many parts of the world, as a delegate on the Developing Countries NGO Delegation to the Board of the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria. She has prepared technical papers, worked as a CEO of an umbrella Non-profit organization for community-based interventions and established a small charity organization The Pink Butterfly Trust, which focuses on adolescent girls’ education and sexual and reproductive health.. In March 2016, Lindiwe returned to the United States where she currently resides in Tulsa. Here she sits on several Boards of non-profit organizations and continues to do what she is most passionate about, the pursuance of social justice, for those on the periphery of society.

Lindiwe's Talk- Forced to Flee: Understanding Refugees Amongst Us.