Team
Hands of Mothers was founded in 2007 as Manos de Madres by Susan Moinester and her daughters, Arielle and Margot. The vision began in Honduras in 2003 with Arielle’s development of an innovative women’s craft initiative and expanded to Rwanda in 2009 with Margot’s internship at WE-ACTx. Hands of Mothers’ US team, Board of Directors and Fellows have always worked on a volunteer basis. All funds raised in the US are directed to support programming in Rwanda.
Hands of Mothers Rwanda
Managing Director
Yvonne Umwali - Yvonne Umwali is a dedicated and accomplished social development practitioner with a rich history of effecting positive change within organizations devoted to serving vulnerable populations. With a focus on strengthening women’s development and promoting children’s education, Yvonne has been an instrumental force in driving impactful programs and initiatives.
She has held a leadership position at Hands of Mothers Rwanda since 2015, where she oversees the daily operations of the organization, ensuring alignment with its goals. Yvonne has played a pivotal role in the birth of various programs at Hands of Mothers Rwanda, showcasing her leadership skills and commitment to innovative, impactful projects. Her responsibilities extend to identifying funding opportunities, composing proposals, and supervising project implementation.
In addition to her role at Hands of Mothers Rwanda, Yvonne is actively involved in various capacities. She is a current board member of MAMA COURAGE, a project dedicated to empowering young teenage mothers in Bugesera, Rwanda. Yvonne also serves as a member of the Green Hills Academy Parents Committee, Primary School section, highlighting her commitment to community engagement and education.
Yvonne holds a Master’s in Social Innovation for Sustainable Development from Turin School of Development (Italy) and a Bachelor’s degree in Economic and Social Sciences from Institut Catholique de Kabgayi (Rwanda).
Program Manager
Marie Paul Ingabire
Management Associate
Immaculee Icyizanye - Immaculee assists the General Manager in implementing and monitoring our economic development programs. She also assists in literacy and numeracy training and in the management of the educational support program. Immaculee has given us permission to share her story.
International Team
Susan Moinester - Managing Director
Susan’s career has traversed the sectors of women’s health advocacy, occupational health, and business. Susan has an extensive background in entrepreneurship and corporate marketing. From 1991 to 2009 Susan managed a personal accessories import start-up, CONNECT USA. Prior to launching CONNECT USA, she was Director of Marketing and New Product Development with the Dr. Scholl’s division of Schering Plough.
Susan lives in Memphis, TN where she is actively engaged in her local community on issues of social justice, education and food insecurity. She serves on the board of her synagogue and is the long-term Chair of the community engagement committee (“Tikkun Olam”). Susan is also a board member of KAVOD, an organization dedicated to providing support for the emergency needs of Holocaust Survivors in the US. Susan volunteers as a reading tutor with the Shelby County Team Read Program and as a mentor with the innovative Tennessee Promise/tnAchieves program college program. Susan holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work and Social Policy from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Brooklyn College in Psychology.
Arielle Moinester - Advisor
Arielle is the Program Director for Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA). She is committed to collaboratively building just food systems that work for people and the planet by centering the solutions of women around the world. Before moving to the Bay Area, Arielle lived in Africa and Asia designing and managing large-scale agricultural development projects and saw how women’s work in food systems was routinely sidelined to the detriment of communities, ecosystems, and the climate. Now with WEA, Arielle works with women environmental leaders and with mission-driven companies to accelerate, resource, and connect the women-led solutions we need to survive on this planet.
Arielle previously worked and lived internationally with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) managing national agricultural and livelihoods portfolios and then served as Regional Technical Advisor for Europe, Middle East, and Central Asia. Prior to CRS, Arielle co- founded Hands of Mothers, an NGO building women’s micro-enterprises globally, and co-founded the raw juice company Earthjuice. Arielle is a founding Advisory Board Member of Ag Innovation Development Group, a Development Impact Lab (DIL) Practitioner in Residence at UC Berkeley, and a 2014 Fellow of the Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy. Arielle earned her M.S. in Agricultural and Resource Economics and an M.S. in International Agricultural Development from the University of California, Davis.
Margot Moinester - Advisor
Margot is a co-founder of Hands of Mothers. She became involved with Manos de Madres (Hands of Mothers) in 2007 as an Ethics Center Student Fellow at Brandeis University. As a Fellow, Margot spent two and a half months in Kigali, Rwanda working to expand INEZA, an income generation project connected with Women’s Equity in Access to Care and Treatment (WE-ACTx). The following summer, Margot returned as a Davis Projects for Peace recipient and worked to transition INEZA into an independent cooperative. Margot is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Washington University. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Harvard University serves as an advisor to Hands of Mothers.
