Jill’s journey
to The Ten Permissions: 

Come to SA to work at Lawyers for Human Rights doing voter education in prisons

Return to SA, continue to do voter education in prisons and work at voting stations on the days of the election

Start work with Pact, a USAID funded US NGO that does capacity building for local NGOs, primary role post 94 is to help NGOs build partnerships with the new government. This is when my focus on OD work: facilitation, team development, leadership, strategy, begins. Pact has a major role to play in the RDP in South Africa, I get a lot of exposure across the country at community level.

Pact starts to send me to other countries to design and develop new USAID programs. I’ll eventually develop new programs for Pact in Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Kenya.

Design new HIV/AIDS program for Pact in Zim. At the time Zimbabwe has the world’s highest HIV/AIDS infection rate and it’s in the grip of destabilization at the hands of its president, Robert Mugabe.

I’m the head of Pact’s office in Zim, in charge of a 7-million-dollar budget. I leave in 2000, burnt out and in need of a break from the aid world.

I write a play Pillow Talk, which is staged at the Harare International Festival of the Arts, which focuses on the HIV/AIDs through the intimate lens of four interlinked couples

write about Africa, AIDS, foreign affairs, am published in Newsweek, The Washington Post, The LA Times

Maintain a freelance consulting practice to international NGOS, focused on organizational development, change management, strategy and leadership. Technically my work will focus on HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, and maternal health. I’ll do work in these countries: Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe Asia: India, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Thailand Eastern Europe: Bosnia, Kosovo, Ukraine

Take time off to raise children

Publish my memoir, Shame Confessions of an Aid Worker in Africa, which explores what I learned during my time in the aid industry

TedX talk, Vain Aid / WATCH THE TALK HERE.

Started Troublemakers, a group focussed on courageous activism and changemaking

Courageous Conversations: my podcast that explores the real side of activism and changemaking, how to make meaningful change at a personal, organisational, and social level. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE.

launched Antacara: helping people discover the fullest power to bring about change in their lives and reach their fullest potential. Provides immersive experience to help people engaging with their self-limiting and full authority.

Covid comes, book starts, Antacara pivots to the Explorers Way, still focussed on what it takes to get people to tap into their agency and bring about change in their lives, their communities and the world.

The book evolves through various writes & re-writes, and comes into focus at “The Ten Permissions”

The Ten Permissions is published in September 2025!