Founder Profile: Ms. Natasha Auma Ochieng
Founder & Executive Director, Global Volunteers for Africa
Ms. Natasha Auma Ochieng is the Founder and Executive Director of Global Volunteers for Africa, a youth-led organization dedicated to connecting volunteers from around the world with impactful service opportunities across Africa.
Natasha’s journey into volunteerism and leadership was deeply inspired by the life story and work of her father, George Ochieng Odalo, the Founder and Executive Director of the Slum Child Foundation. Born and raised in the Korogocho slums of Nairobi, her father grew up as a street-connected child, facing extreme hardship, poverty, and social exclusion. His life took a transformative turn when volunteers and community champions intervened supporting his reintegration into school, restoring his dignity, and helping him rediscover his purpose in life.
This powerful experience shaped his lifelong commitment to service. Having risen from the slums, he went on to establish the Slum Child Foundation to support and empower young people within and beyond Korogocho through education, protection, leadership development, and social advocacy. Over the years, he has actively engaged in grassroots mobilization, national lobbying, and international advocacy, championing the rights of vulnerable children and marginalized communities on regional and global platforms.
Growing up in this environment of service, Natasha was encouraged from an early age to volunteer and give back.
Her father’s passion, resilience, and belief in the power of volunteerism profoundly influenced her values and leadership path. Motivated by his story and mentorship, she became actively involved in community work and humanitarian initiatives while still a teenager.
At the age of 17, Natasha founded Global Volunteers for Africa to extend this legacy of service beyond borders. The organization connects volunteers from all over the world who are interested in promoting volunteerism and contributing their skills, time, and compassion to development initiatives in any country across Africa. Through cross-cultural exchange and community-led engagement, Global Volunteers for Africa supports programs in education, health, community development, environmental conservation, and youth empowerment.
Ms. Natasha Auma Ochieng represents a new generation of African leadership rooted in lived experience, inspired by resilience, and driven by a global vision to harness volunteerism as a powerful force for sustainable development and social transformation across Africa.