Maria Spink, Founder and Executive Director

Maria is a social entrepreneur with a background in the financial sector and carbon finance. After 17 years in senior positions in international banking in London, Maria joined the Executive Board of Green Resources - a tree planting and renewables company, active in East Africa. Working with local labourers and village elders in the Iringa Region, Maria learnt about the acute vulnerability of girls attending schools without safe accommodation and was shocked by the many voiceless women who were child brides or had experienced teenage pregnancies. Maria founded Lyra in 2012 in recognition of the significant impact when investing in girls' and young women's education and entrepreneurship. Maria is dedicated to gaining social and economic equality for girls and women in rural Tanzania. Maria is also a member of the Lyra Board.

Vesal Kuchumov, Global Programs and Compliance Manager

Vesal is a seasoned humanitarian and development professional with over 10 years of experience leading multi-sectoral programs across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. 

She currently serves as Global Programs and Compliance Manager at Lyra in Africa, where she oversees Lyra’s various programs, while ensuring full compliance with internal policies and international standards. Vesal has held various roles with the red cross red crescent movement, the UN, and other organizations, with a strong focus on program management, emergency response, and CVA. Vesal has a background in public health, epidemiology, and psychology, with ongoing academic training in the latter.

Nora Mkenda, Program Manager

Nora Mkenda comes to Lyra with a wealth of experience in program management. She has worked as an M&E Officer and Manager for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation for more than ten years where she participated in designing supervising motoring and reporting health programs. She has experience in working with different stakeholders like government officials, donors, and beneficiaries.

She is also interested in farming where she owns a farming business practicing sustainable farming methods. She holds a bachelor's degree in chemical and Processing Engineering from the University of Dar es Salaam, a master's in public health from the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, postgraduate diploma in Monitoring Evaluation and Learning from the University of Pretoria and Environmental Economics from the University of Copenhagen.

Illuminata Kiponda, Construction Coordinator.

Illuminata Kiponda graduated from Ardhi University with a Bachelor of Building Survey. Illuminata's passion for serving the community extends to her desire to help young girls achieve their goals and gain confidence in their abilities. Her experience and expertise are currently being utilized by Illuminata as an independent consultant on construction projects in Africa.

Noel Kiula Samwel, Technical Consultant.

Samwel, Noel Kiula. Is a Systems Developer as well as a Technician. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Technology and Systems from Mzumbe University. Noel enjoys contributing his skills to the exciting technological advances that occur on a daily basis. Noel previously interned with Tanzania Telecommunication Company Limited (TTCL). Noel is currently working as a technical consultant for Lyra in Africa.

Dorice Kimambo, Gender Equality Officer.

Dorice is a vibrant community practitioner with a background in Economics. She is passionate in promotion of gender equality and equity by empowering girls and women in the community to attain their full potential through promotion of quality education and economic growth.
Previously she worked with National and International organizations such as Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT), Raleigh Tanzania in several projects and UNICEF Tanzania as a Digital business facilitator, project leader, Team leader and Children’s Rights Champion coach.
In these roles she excelled to transform community youth to transform their business from analog to digital while promoting 70 to 30 gender ratio of women to men respectively, Equip youth with entrepreneurial skills enable them to start their business, transformed communities to adopt the use of clean energy sources and also promoted children rights during and post COVID -19 pandemic.
Currently Dorice works with Lyra in Africa as Gender Equality Officer.

Gift Mafue, Imarika Jamii Program Coordinator.

Gift Mafue is the Imarika Jamii (Livelihoods) Program Coordinator at Lyra, where he has worked since 2018. With ten (10) years of experience in donor projects management, rural community engagement, and front-line training, Gift previously held roles at ANSAF as a Project Officer and at World Vision Tanzania as a Livelihoods Program Facilitator. He is also an entrepreneur running his own poultry farm and is dedicated to helping rural communities acquire new skills that drive lasting change. Gift holds a Bachelor's degree in Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness