Our Background

I once sat with some friends in the bar in the Dar es Salaam Institute, the Goan community's club in Dar es Salaam, narrating the story that 'when the Wall fell in Europe on 5 November1989, I had just returned from a trip to the USSR'. My point then was to demonstrate that where many people expect you to have been to the USA 'because that was the way we oriented ourselves growing up in Western Europe, turning towards the West with it's pop music, plastic, films and clothes', I went East before I went South.

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A younger woman in the company didn't get this point, in stead she slowly realised: 'But then you must be old'.

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The USSR was one of the first places I ever went to outside of Denmark. I was 17 and in high school. We studied glasnost and perestrojka in History and Sociology classes. We drank cheap champagne and vodka straight from the bottle on that trip, and had the worst hangovers. Yet, the USSR sparked my curiosity into places where you have to make an effort going. The fall of the Wall was a significant milestone for the youth of my generation. The world felt open. Things changed, and I am doubtful when I see my generation dealing with the current situation of multi-dimensional crises in conventional ways such as buying more weapons, denying climate change and prioritising growth over care for people and planet.

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I count 20+ years of experience with establishing, coordinating and maintaining networks and groups in different settings and cultures. For the short version; I spent a good part of the very early 2000s in Serbia during the Milošević regime; two years in an exhausted corner on the northern Ugandan border with South Sudan, and more years in a vibrant metropolis in a peaceful, developing Tanzania. I have typically worked with groups of people - youth, refugees, journalists, activists, volunteers, artists, politicians and diaspora - who live in marginalised areas and/ or cannot take easy access to for example information or public services for granted.

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I draw on a teacher's degree, an MA in African Studies and an unfinished PhD study which through ethnographic fieldwork focused on how ordinary people help informally in crisis. This provides me with a combination of both didactic and pedagogical insight into social dynamics as well as academic tools and communication skills. I particularly enjoy work that allows creative and experimental thinking, requires overview and an empathetic, curious and trust-based approach to people. My core competence is to facilitate frameworks for others to develop their potential as well as documenting and communicating the process and results. I usually enjoy that, and I get excited when creating common ground works out, while people grow and take responsibility for their local community.

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I have amongst others worked with South East European Youth Network, Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke, ActionAid International, Civil Society in Development (CISU), Deutsche Welle Akademie, UNDP and the Government of South Sudan (Jonglei State), Plan International, GiZ, Tanzania Media Fund, Twaweza, Femina HIP, The Rockwool Foundation, The Timbuktu Foundation, Main Library of Copenhagen, the Deaconal University College in Århus and Museum of African Art in Belgrade, Serbia.