Mary Noble
Co-Founder and CEO of Feminenza International
MA Archaeology/Social Anthropology (Lon); MA Peace and Reconciliation Studies (Coventry)
Trained and qualified in social anthropology and archaeology, conflict transformation and peace studies, and a veteran director of academic studies, Mary has worked for decades to promote the development of women and their natural inner journey,, building a progressive partnership between the genders, and the work of forgiveness, reconciliation and peace building, focusing on the long term development of women as peacemakers.
Mary dedicates her time to giving lectures, seminars and workshops to women and men, travelling across the globe on behalf of Feminenza. She continues to develop a programme on transformative leadership, and runs international practitioner training courses in Understanding and Managing Fear, and Forgiveness. She believes passionately that we are in a critical time of change and that the liberation of the feminine soul at this point in history is essential for the future of all life on this planet. Her commitment to developing a new working relationship between men and women to help bring about this next stage of our evolution is demonstrated in her XX/XY seminars and talks.
In January 2006, she was invited to run a 4-day international conference, hosted by Feminenza and UNESCO PEER at the UN headquarters in Nairobi, titled Humanity & Gender. This event served 250 delegates, men and women, representatives from business, NGOs and UN officers from the Great Lakes Region of Africa, to discuss some of the most fundamental issues where gender equity is concerned. These included themes such as early forced marriage, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), positive masculinity, combating HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence through building awareness and value between the genders, giving respect to the stages of life, and forgiveness and reconciliation between the genders.
Transformative Leadership for Women: Since 2007 Mary has been developing a programme of Transformative Leadership for Women, which was piloted in Mombasa in 2008 with 60 women leaders, and subsequently became the basis for a UN Women funded programme to train women to lead conflict mitigation activities in the Rift Valley.
Forgiveness and Reconciliation: In July 2007, Mary ran a 2 day seminar for over 100 delegates in Nairobi on Finding Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Peace, hosted by Feminenza and UNILAC, a University for refugee students from Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC. Since then she has held workshops and seminars all over the world, including New Zealand, Greece, Israel, Turkey, the UK and the USA. In 2010-2011 she completed a pilot programme for training grassroots women as Forgiveness and Reconciliation Counsellors in Kenya, funded by UN Women. Her focus now is on training new practitioners from around the world.
Trauma Healing: In 2015, Mary ran a 5 day trauma healing workshop in partnership with Global Communities, for 60 community leaders from the informal settlements of Nairobi. In 2016 this was conducted for 30 adolescent girls and young women who had experienced severe gender-based violence. In June 2017, Mary conducted a trauma healing workshop for 25 community Elders from Nakuru County.