Board

Bettina Bräm – Chairperson

Bettina Bräm is a socio-cultural animator, landlady, mediator, property manager, reflexologist, and yoga teacher in training. She has worked with Hannah Munz as a mother-and-youth worker in the Grünau Community Center, then later helped to build the neighbourhood law firm. She is co-founder of the Hanfhauses on Hirschenplatz in Zurich. Bettina supports various projects in Africa and is heavily involved in women’s issues. She is the mother of six children, loves nature, mantra singing, the mountains and the sea, loves to travel and is also happy to be at home. Currently Bettina and her daughter Charina are busy building a neighborhood café in Zurich’s 3rd district.

German

Barbara Strating – Secretary

Geboren 1985 in Mierlo. Programmamaker Studium Generale sinds juni 2018, woont in Maastricht.

Sylvia Borren – Board member

(Born 20-9-1950, Eindhoven, Netherlands) Nationality: Dutch and New Zealander.

Sylvia Borren has worked all her life within and for civil society organizations, both professionally and as a volunteer. She was part of the Dutch and global women’s and sexual rights movements (COC, ILGA, IWC for a Just and sustainable Palestinian-Israeli Peace) and is now advisor to the UN Women National Committee Netherlands and ATRIA (the Institute on gender equality and women’s history). Sylvia is part of the anti-poverty movement (director of Oxfam Novib 1994-2008, co-chair of the Global Call to Action against Poverty and EEN) and is now vicechair of BRAC International. She was on two Dutch national governmental advisory commissions (for Youth Policy, and the Advisory Council on International Affairs), co-chair of the Worldconnectors (a Dutch think tank), on the board of a large Mental Health Institute (Altrecht), worked as an organizational consultant with De Beuk for nine years, and lead the project Quality Educators for All with the trade union Education International. Sylvia was recently director of Greenpeace Netherlands (2011-2016), was part of the Forest Stewardship Council Netherlands, is on the board of ‘the QuestionMark which she initiatied, and is on the advisory commission of Staatsbosbeheer, which manages Government nature reserves. She is presently a free-lance consultant ‘Working for Justice’ and a senior adviser for Governance&Integrity. (see profile of GI-International).

Hannah Munz – Board member

Hannah Munz was born 77 years ago in Winterthur, where she grew up with her older brother in an open, loving family. She was influenced early on by her Marxist-socialist grandfather. After art school, she married Johann Munz, industrial designer. She became the mother of two children, Christine (1964) and Oliver (1967). After Oliver was born, Hannah trained as a painting therapist and became a course instructor for creative work in the Migros Frauenfeld school. From 1972 to 1979 she gave painting courses for children in Zurich and Stäfa. In 1980 she did an internship at the Grünau Community Center Zurich. This work became a commitment because in 1982 Hannah took over the management of the center where she remained until her retirement at the end of 2006. Whilst there, she became trained in management of non-profit organizations and in communication, mediation and supervision.

In addition to the many projects that she and her team implemented to improve the quality of life for the residents of Grünau, her last, the art project FUGE, was her favourite: before its renovation, between 2000 and 2004 an urban settlement slated for demolition and reconstruction became the largest temporary studio and museum.

German