Mamonyane Mohale
Co-founder / Executive Director
Mamonyane Mohale was a leader in public health care for more than 25 years when she co-founded Ministry of Hope Lesotho with Nancy Dimmock in 2009. The Ministry was initially created to care for infants in crisis and to encourage working mothers to breast-feed their babies. At the request of the national government, its mission quickly expanded to include nutritional and developmental rehabilitation, family reunification research and adoption, all on behalf of orphaned and vulnerable children in Lesotho.
Born into a Mosotho family in the rural Berea District (north of Maseru), Mamonyane completed her primary and secondary education in local schools, then studied general nursing and midwifery at Scott Hospital in Morija, Lesotho. Her first employment, as a primary health care coordinator, involved school- and community-based health education in nutrition, maternal health and child health services. She later designed and implemented a program in home-based care that involved 14 health centers and 914 villages. This initiative became the model for a national program.
Following this early success, Mamonyane was encouraged to continue her education in public health in the U.K. She completed a certificate in nutrition and child health, and a diploma in community-based rehabilitation at the University of London. She earned a master’s of education in 1991 from Bristol University, where she researched the role of primary health care in preventing disabilities in Lesotho. After her return, she was appointed head of the Primary Health Care Department at Scott Hospital, where she excelled in staff development, team building and fundraising.
In 2003 Mamonyane became the primary health care coordinator for the Christian Health Association of Lesotho, where she managed annual planning and evaluation for eight hospitals and 52 health centers. She also broadened her expertise in public health to include reproductive health (with an emphasis on breast-feeding), and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.
It was during this time that Nancy Dimmock, a mission co-worker with the Presbyterian Church (USA), was reassigned to serve in Lesotho. The two renewed their friendship of years before. Both felt strongly called to provide crisis care to the most vulnerable children in Lesotho. Ministry of Hope Lesotho was established and registered with the government in December 2009.
Nancy Dimmock
Co-founder
Nancy Miller Dimmock is a second-generation missionary. She was born and raised in the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). She studied animal husbandry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and North Carolina State University, then joined the Peace Corps for two years, assigned to a cattle feedlot project in Lesotho.
Nancy and her husband, Frank, served for more than three decades in Lesotho, Malawi and Zambia as mission co-workers with the Presbyterian Church (USA). Their areas of interest and expertise were health care and the care of vulnerable children. The Dimmocks have eight children, six of whom are adopted.
During their initial term of service in Lesotho, the Dimmocks got to know Mamonyane Mohale, then a primary health care nurse (and later the community health care program director) for Scott Hospital. Nancy and Mamonyane developed a deep bond of friendship, as each had children and raised them during these years. Nancy and Frank had two children and adopted two children during their time in Lesotho.
The Dimmocks were later transferred to Malawi, where they adopted four more children. During her 16 years there, Nancy established the first crisis nursery for infant orphans, joining its ministry to the already-established Ministry of Hope, a community-based orphan care program.
When the Dimmocks were reassigned to Lesotho in 2007, Nancy and Mamonyane rekindled their friendship and discovered a mutual and deep compassion for the orphaned and most vulnerable. They followed through with the establishment of Ministry of Hope Lesotho. Mamonyane has ably directed the program ever since, while Nancy has spread the word about this life-saving ministry among U.S. faith communities, who are one of our strongest sources of financial support.
U.S. Board of Directors
Sally Harwood President
Financial Consultant
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Jarrett Callaway Vice President
Owner
Restoration Antiques
Mobile, Alabama
Dottie Cannon Secretary
Vice President, Human Resources
Kith
New York, New York
Makhabiso Ramphoma Chair
Nurse Administrator
Nancy Dimmock Co-Founder
Homemaker
Decatur, Georgia
Timothy Palmer Curl Treasurer
Communications Consultant
Crozet, Virginia
Steve Batstone
Door & Window Specialist
The Home Depot
Santa Paula, California
Susanna Black
Supply Chain Director
Colgate Palmolive
Scottsdale, Arizona
Bryn Hartzell
Founder & Creative Director
B. Hartzell
New York, New York
Lauren Mann
Senior Business Systems Engineer
Duke Corporate Education
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Lesotho Board of Directors
Mamonyane Mohale Secretary
Co-Founder & Executive Director
Ministry of Hope Lesotho
Mathunts’ane Mohapi Treasurer
Economist
The Rev. Teboho Motumi
Pastor, Lesotho Evangelical Church
Mantoa Sejake
Social Worker
Ministry of Social Development