Tomaida Banda is a Program Officer (Child Rights and Protection) at the Firelight Foundation based in Zimbabwe. Firelight is a multi-donor public charity fund that raises money from foundations, individuals and institutions to support community-based organizations (CBOs) in eastern and southern Africa. Firelight believes in the power and right of African communities to create lasting change for their own children and youth and when communities are able to create safe, strong and nurturing environments, children and youth thrive and are able to realize their extraordinary potential. They use the community- driven systems approach ai all their work.
Previously, she worked as the Executive Director of Child Protection Society, an organization that works with vulnerable children and their families in Zimbabwe. She has been working in the development sector for the past ten years and is actively involved with the Child Protection Coalition in Zimbabwe. The Child Protection Society works with communities to facilitate the achievement of full potential by all children. The organization has three main programmes: community-based child care, advocacy for children's rights, and residential care of children.
Ms. Banda has participated in a number of international and regional conferences and has presented papers and poster presentations at the International Aids Conference in Mexico, the Symposium on Children Infected & Affected by AIDS in Mexico, and the fourth African International Conference on Early Childhood Development in Senegal.
Ms. Banda holds a masters of Social Work from the School of Social Work in Zimbabwe. She is currently the chairperson of Aids Counselling Trust, a local NGO that works with those infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.
She has been working in the development sector for the past ten years and is actively involved with the Child Protection Coalition in Zimbabwe.