Support The Dympna Meaney Women’s Leadership Development Fund Now
The Dympna Meaney Women’s Leadership Development Fund was established to connect women leaders from the Global South with skills-building opportunities to strengthen their contributions to global human rights. Please donate to support more women leaders.
Women Supported in 2024
The Dympna Meaney Women’s Leadership Development Fund (DMF) has had a rewarding partnership with Self Help Africa in Uganda from 2020 to 2024, supporting local grassroots activists to undertake counselling training that enhances their skills and capacities to work with women living with HIV/AIDS. The DMF sees the social exclusion arising from the experience of HIV/AIDS as a key vulnerability in gender-based violence.
Meet the 2024 women leaders from Uganda who received the Fund in 2024: Alungat Stella and Adeke Grace.
Both Stella and Grace are members of their local Village Health Teams (VHTs). VHTs collaborate with the Ugandan Health Ministry through the AIDS Information Centre. Stella and Grace, as Village Health Team volunteers, provide support, guidance and counselling to women farmers, young people, as well as elderly women and men living with HIV/AIDS and those who are HIV negative. VHTs have a significant impact on health outcomes, particularly for people who find it difficult to access health services.
Alungat Stella
Alungat Stella is a member of the Opeta Women’s Development Group in Magoro, Teso, Uganda. She received €678.00 to attend a three-week training course in HIV/AIDS Guidance and Counselling at the AIDS Information Centre, Kampala.
Adeke Grace
Adeke Grace is from Kide village, Opeta, Magoro, Teso, Uganda. She received €678.00 to attend a three-week training course on HIV/AIDS Guidance and Counselling at the Aids Information Centre, Kampala
Dympna Meaney Fund Changes in 2024 and 2025
In 2025, at the end of the partnership period between the Dympna Meaney Fund (DMF) and Self Help Africa (SHA), the DMF agreed a new collaboration with a Ugandan non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Soruda.
One of Soruda’s key priorities is women’s empowerment and child advocacy. With the help of Ugandan and Irish supporters of the DMF, we created a new partnership whereby Soruda will identify women leaders/activists and invite them to apply to the Fund. Soruda provides support to applicants and the opportunity to participate in GALS, a community-based Gender Action Learning System.
In May 2025, the DMF Committee met to review and plan our work. As well as agreeing the new relationship with Soruda, the Committee said goodbye to one member, Nata Duvvary, who has been with us since the beginning in 2015. Sincere thanks to Nata for her invaluable contribution. A warm welcome to our new member, Collette Nkunda, who joined in October 2025.
The DMF is very pleased to work with a locally based Ugandan NGO and appreciates the support it has received from Self Help Africa over the years, which has helped shape this new partnership for the Fund. We look forward to the DMF-Soruda collaboration in 2025.
How You Can Support Women Leaders
Our ability to continue supporting grassroots women leaders and activists in Uganda is due to your ongoing support and generosity, as well as a fundraising event in 2022. We thank you again for supporting us and the women profiled above.
While the pandemic impacted our allocations for a few years, we are well and truly back to work supporting women who are deeply connected to the vision and purpose of the Dympna Meaney Fund.
Thank you to all our donors and fundraisers, to Comhlámh for providing the foundation for our Fund, and the ongoing support services to ensure our every euro goes further. Also, thanks to Self Help Africa, and to Eithne McNulty in particular, for administering the Fund to our activist friends on the frontline in Uganda.
Steering Committee Members: Mary Van Lieshout, Chairperson; Jane Farren; Rita McNulty; Ann Fitzpatrick; Claire O’Neill; Kate O’Donnell and Collette Knunda.