ARUSHA, TANZANIA
The Imara Fund
Wanawake Imara. Resilient Communities.
A locally grounded, trauma-informed women’s resilience and leadership initiative strengthening safety, dignity, agency, and community connection.
Explore our approach →
Aurora Impact Foundation × RACAS Foundation × Martial Arts for Justice
A COLLABORATIVE INITIATIVE
Imara means resilient, strong, firm, stable, and steadfast.
THE MEANING OF IMARA
01
Dignity first
Every experience honours women’s agency, knowledge, and self-determined futures.
02
Locally led
Tanzanian leadership and community trust guide implementation and long-term capacity.
03
Built to endure
Local facilitator development creates a pathway from a pilot to sustainable community impact.
Women do not need to be given strength. The Imara Fund supports the conditions in which their existing strength can be protected, restored, and sustained.
Resilience is not individual willpower alone. It grows through safety, dignity, trusted relationships, practical tools, and sustained community investment.
OUR APPROACH
From personal resilience to community leadership.
Imara brings together trauma-informed resilience training, practical personal-safety skills, community connection, and a train-the-trainer pathway.
PHASE 1
Build safety and connection
Cohort-based learning creates a trusted space for embodied resilience, confidence, emotional wellbeing, and mutual support.
PHASE 2
Develop local facilitators
Participants with leadership potential are supported to deepen their skills and help carry the work forward.
PHASE 3
Strengthen community systems
Locally held knowledge, partnerships, and evaluation inform responsible expansion and sustained impact.
METHODOLOGY
Delivered through the Enhanced Resilience Training™ methodology—an embodied, trauma-informed approach to rebuilding confidence, agency, and connection.
“When women have the conditions to stand firmly in their own strength, the effects reach families, communities, and generations.”
COLLABORATION ARCHITECTURE
Global partnership. Tanzanian leadership. Shared accountability.
Imara brings together complementary leadership, community knowledge, charitable capacity, and a proven resilience methodology.
INITIATIVE LEAD
Aurora Impact Foundation
Strategic leadership, initiative development, fundraising, impact strategy, and long-term systems change.
LOCAL IMPLEMENTATION PARTNER
RACAS Foundation
Tanzanian leadership, community relationships, local coordination, women’s empowerment, and child protection.
CHARITABLE AND TRAINING PARTNER
Martial Arts for Justice
Canadian charitable partnership, fundraising support, training expertise, and Enhanced Resilience Training implementation experience.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND IMARA
Leadership rooted in partnership.
The Imara Initiative is guided by a collaborative team bringing together Tanzanian community leadership, women’s rights, trauma-informed resilience training, program development and international implementation experience. Our work is grounded in shared leadership, cultural responsiveness and a commitment to building lasting, locally led capacity.
Shannon Smadella, MBA
Initiative & Strategic Lead
Leads strategy, partnerships, fund development, impact planning, and long-term sustainability.
Halima Msofe
Tanzania Program & Community Lead
Guides community relationships, participant engagement, and local implementation.
Master Dean Siminoff
Methodology & Training Lead
Provides oversight of ERT methodology, facilitator development, and training.
NEXT: TRAINING AND FACILITATION TEAM
Master Ashlee Siminoff has been training in taekwondo for 30 years starting as a child and in her teen years she was teaching alongside her father as they started Kootenay Martial Arts. Master Ashlee ia a 4th Dan Black Belt and is a Master Instructor at Kootenay Martial Arts when she is at home in Nelson BC. Ashlee is a certified international instructor for Enhanced Resilience Training and is currently living in Rwanda. She is enjoying teaching and volunteering and excited about the work of Martial Arts for Justice.
Master Ashlee Siminoff
Master Zura Mushambokazi has been practicing Taekwondo for 15 years. During this time she was a competitive member of the Rwanda national team traveling world wide. ZURA is a 4th Dan Black Belt and Master Instructor and certified international referee and teaches regularly in Kigali where she lives. Zura was a Taekwondo coach in the last Paralympics in Japan. For the past 10 years Zura has been a dedicated Enhanced Resilience Training Instructor and is now a certified international instructor for ERT.
Master Zura Mushambokazi
Blaise Nyiribakwe is country director in Rwanda for Martial Arts for Justice. He has been teaching Enhanced Resilience Training since 2018 and is a certified international instructor . Blaise is also an expert translator for English in Rwanda and he has been Master Dean's translator for the past 8 years. Blaise is also a Pastor in Rwanda where he serves as translator much of the time, he is also a Mind Education Trainor with International Youth Fellowship in Rwanda. Along with his 1st Dan Black Belt, Blaise has a bachelor's degree in Theology and Pastoral Ministry and additionally in Food Science.
Blaise Nyiribakwe
WHAT IS ENHANCED RESILIENCE TRAINING?
BECOME A FOUNDING SUPPORTER
Help create the conditions where women and communities thrive.
Founding support helps make pilot delivery, participant access, local coordination, facilitator development, learning, and evaluation possible.
Funding and charitable contribution details will be provided based on the supporter’s location and needs.
The Imara Initiative
Wanawake Imara. Resilient Communities.
An Aurora Impact Foundation-led collaborative initiative with RACAS Foundation and Martial Arts for Justice, delivered through the Enhanced Resilience Training™ methodology.