The name "Lamaro" was given to Holly Elissa by the Acholi people she serves in Northern Uganda. "Lamaro" means to be loved by humanity, the people; and to have love for humanity/people. Holly humbly accepts the honour of her name-giving by carrying this name.

Toted as having "her fair share of Lara Croft going on" by Sharp Magazine, multi-dimensional artist, Lamaro Holly Elissa, is an actor, activist, adventurer and a well-rounded entertainment industry entrepreneur. Holly actively takes on the roles of producer, director and writer under her own production company (Lamaro Pictures) and is the founder and president of Caleb’s Hope.

Holly has had the honour of volunteering with many charities and youth programs since her teen years. From tutoring to coaching mentally and physically disabled children in gymnastics, and mentoring high-risk youth, it all started at the age of 12. By the age of 16, she was an activist for SIDA/AIDS Moncton. She successfully spear-headed a campaign to involve high-school students of the then very homophobic city in what was a very controversial AIDS Walk. She canvassed each high-school, classroom by classroom, all by herself. At that time only one high-school was brave enough to do the walk, today most of them participate.

From there, her involvement has spanned to Habitat for Humanity, Rose Charities, Students for a Free Tibet, PLEA's Kidstart program, and the Vancouver School Board “Making Contact” Mentorship Program. In 2007, she volunteered at Happy Life Children's Home in Kenya and the birth of Caleb's Hope followed.

Having a love for high-altitude climbing, she plans on making bids for the remainder 6 summits she has yet to ascent with money raised going to Caleb’s Hope.

She is currently a proud supporter and ambassador for WSPA, and ongoing supporter of SOS Children’s Villages and volunteers in classrooms in South Central Los Angeles and Downtown East Side in Vancouver with high-risk children. When not in North America, you can find her roaming about the horn of Africa.

Holly splits her time between Los Angeles, California; East Africa; Moncton, N.B.; and Vancouver, BC.

Bio coming soon

Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Merewyn has a BA in International Development Studies from Saint Mary’s University. She worked in the Development field for 3 years, and sat on a number of boards and committees before moving to Vancouver, British Columbia in 2003 to pursue other goals.

Merewyn has over a decade of experience in coordinating and program planning in very different arenas, working with non-governmental organizations to production coordinating in film and television. Presently Merewyn is making a shift in the film and television industry, to development and writing. She currently resides in Toronto, Ontario and is a freelance researcher and copy-writer.

Merewyn has had the great pleasure of being a Board Member with Caleb’s Hope since its conception, and looks forward to watching and participating in its growth.

I am the owner and principal of Headstrong Design. I design things: interiors, graphics, logos, and murals. I make art. I take photos. That is my love, my passion and my life work, all under the Headstrong Design umbrella.

I’ve been a designer all my life. It is in my blood. I created seating arrangements with focal points in my Lego houses. At age six I began rearranging whatever furniture I could move. I’ve always drawn and made art. I only realized it was a viable career option after a failed attempt at a degree in Economics and Philosophy, from which I ran screaming. Academia and the pursuit of institutional membership was clearly the wrong direction for me, but it took years of living independently and figuring myself out to arrive at that conclusion. Ultimately, I chose to study Interior Design at BCIT. Upon graduating I exercised that skill set rigidly and inorganically, limiting my work to interior consultations and drawing packages. I quickly fell out of love with straight up interior design. I didn’t want to show people how to arrange their furniture; this felt boring, empty and repetitive. After a transformative Spring in 2010, spent between Berlin, London and Greece, I came back to Vancouver with some serious quarter life crisis questions for myself. I wondered why I still didn’t feel like a designer. I certainly wasn’t living up to my image of myself. I wasn’t being Headstrong and I was beginning to doubt my path.

I made a solid commitment to be true to my wildest dreams and began to focus on branding myself as an independent designer, allowing my flexible serving job to keep me out of the ‘starving’ of artist categories. From there I forced myself to produce anything and everything, make graphics, paint murals, take photos, design furniture, regardless of a pay cheque. And through social networking, namely Facebook, people started catching on that this is what I do and projects have been popping up consistently since then. I didn’t abandon interior design altogether. My attention wandered quickly to humanitarian design and it was through Architecture for Humanity Vancouver that I found Caleb’s Hope in August 2010, during a charrette for Phase 1 of Project Build.

Based on the colour of my skin, I was granted a blissful childhood in the beautiful city of Cape Town, South Africa, while my fellow citizens were segregated, marginalized, and many tortured and killed by secret sects of the South African police during the apartheid regime. In 1995 I immigrated to Vancouver. My incredible privilege in life, coming from a good, loving family and being barred from none of the accoutrements of society, pushes me now to do what I can to improve the situation of those who didn’t get the free ride I did. I am an unapologetic idealist.

I bring this outlook and ethos to my work as the Creative Director of Caleb’s Hope, a position I took in May 2011. My work is also inspired by travel and nature. I love the symmetry, texture and colour of plants and trees, the ripple of the ocean’s surface in a breeze. Everything about new cities inspires me, the architecture, the people, and the food. I wouldn’t be doing what I do if I hadn’t traveled or didn’t continue to do so each year. I hope to go to Attiak soon to meet our beneficiaries and their families, to survey the land and take giant strides forward with Phase 2 and 3 of Project Build and beyond.

Oneka Richard is Caleb's Hope's Program Director and Country Representative for Uganda. We are very fortunate to have Richard working with us. He and Holly are the same age. He is from Attiak so being a part of this organization means a lot to him. His goal is to see his people go home and for there to be peace. Richard was a refugee at the age of 7 when he fled the north with his mother and brother to the Sudan. His first time returning to Attiak - to home - was in 2008. He has a university degree in social work and has been working with NGOs and facilitating their work in Gulu for many years. He and his brother formed CHAFORD (Charity for Rural Development) based out of Gulu. Their focus is food security: harvesting, re-introducing agriculture, the importance of clean water and hygiene.

Richard keeps Nyara Project and Caleb's Hope running on a daily basis. He visits with the beneficiaries regularly to check up on their progress, health, training and overall wellbeing.

You can find out more about Richard and read his blog at his website.

Bio coming soon!

22-year-old Okello Richard studied General Agriculture specializing in animal husbandry and crop production at the Amugo Agricultural Institute in Uganda. He offers our beneficiaries training in animal rearing and crop production, particularly in the areas of modern agronomic practices, post-harvest handling, as well as fruit farming and growing.

Okello is excited to be part of our Ugandan team, and is looking forward to the forthcoming training for our beneficiaries in the new year.

I have been a volunteer with CH for approximately two years, in Moncton, New Brunswick. I sell Nayara bead necklaces and earrings. I also make jewelry with the beads.

In December 2011, I will be making my first trip to Attiak, Uganda to train the beneficiaries to use jewelry making tools. This is right up my alley as I have a Fine Arts degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD).

Bertha Chin heads the e-Team at Caleb’s Hope, where the team is in charge of managing and maintaining the organisation’s website and various social media presence. Born and raised in the Malaysian part of Borneo, she has always been fascinated with the jewellery beads that are part of the Borneon native culture, which was what drew her to the NYARA beads initially. The charity’s mission in empowering vulnerable women through sustainable job creations, and the passion as well as dedication of those involved made her believe that she can also play a part in changing the world - and her own life - by contributing her time and skills. She began volunteering with Caleb’s Hope in 2009.

Bertha has taught at various higher institutions in the United Kingdom, such as London Metropolitan University, Cardiff University and Goldsmiths College. She recently completed her doctorate degree in Media and Cultural Studies from Cardiff University, where her own academic research into fan marketing, audiences and social media is frequently put to good use with Caleb’s Hope. Bertha lives in London with her cat, where she intends to continue her academic career and volunteering with Caleb's Hope.

A student from the North of England, Rebecca had been volunteering with Caleb's Hope since March 2009. She was originally drawn to the charity because of the work that they do for women and children in Uganda, who have had their lives adversely affected by the LRA. She appreciates what it means to have a helping hand in moments of need.

Rebecca is currently studying Film and Cultural Studies at University, with a view to entering the film industry once she had completed her degree. Ideally, she would like to do screenwriting in the future, as writing is her passion, while also keeping keeping up with her other commitments. Especially Caleb's Hope.

She is inspired by confidence: the confidence to be who you are, and to make change in the world.

Bio coming soon!

Lisa Wilson-Wright serves as the volunteer coordinator for Caleb’s Hope and also helps with various administrative duties. She began volunteering for Caleb’s Hope in 2008. In addition to volunteering for Caleb’s Hope, Lisa works as a consultant in the energy efficiency field. She is the mother of a bright and enthusiastic son and the partner of a intelligent and loving man. Lisa also practices yoga, hula hoops, and loves to cook and bake with locally sourced ingredients. Although she grew up in the US Midwest, she now lives in Boston, MA.

Lisa's photo is courtesy of Ms. Allana Taranto.

Greetings! My name is Broadus Mattison and I am a Vancouver, BC based actor who is honoured and privileged to be a part of Caleb’s Hope in the role of researcher. With a background in information science, law enforcement, and service in the U.S. Navy, I seek to keep the members of Caleb’s up to date with the latest developments in Sub-Saharan/East Africa, with a special emphasis on Uganda and the Sudan.

Daniel is one of our researchers. He has a Master in Human Rights with a focus on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). He's supporting a number of NGO's but focus his voluntary work for Caleb's Hope.

Professionally Daniel advices people how to best combine food and beverage. Most of his spare time he spends as a musician, conductor, band leader and arranger of music.

Katja is honored to support Caleb's Hope as the Director for Architecture and Sustainability. Educated in Germany, with a Dipl.-Ing. degree in Architecture acquired at the Brandenburgische Technische Universitaet Cottbus, a background in architectural research, sustainability and design, Katja has worked as an architectural designer for multiple firms in Canada and Germany. For the last 5 years Katja has been living and working in Vancouver, and developed quite a passion for the great outdoors, especially snowboarding and hiking. Katja currently works with MCMP, a Vancouver based architecture firm as a job captain for medium sized projects, and is very grateful to MCMP for supporting her work for Caleb's Hope.