Barbara Lamb Hall, Development Director from the Village Enterprise Fund (VEF) speaks about her organization’s work in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. For the past 18 years, they have given “micro-enterprise” grants to East African villagers who then start businesses with support and training from VEF. These small businesses provide families with a sustainable source of income and a way to break the cycle of poverty and hopelessness. To date, VEF has launched over 9,000 businesses run by 45,000 entrepreneurs and improved over 140,000 lives as a result. Over 60% of the businesses are run by women. For more info, see http://www.villageef.org/

Prior to joining VEF, Barbara had her own business, Spain and Lamb Consulting Group, which provided fundraising, strategic planning and board development to a wide variety of Bay Area agencies, netting over $20 million of funding.

Barbara has a master’s degree in International Nutrition and Development from Tufts University, where she also received the Paul Alexander Fellowship for International Public Health, working in Swaziland, southern Africa on a maternal and child health project. She is married to Harry Richard Hall, a radio producer on KGO/KSFO and jazz show host on KCSM. They have three children, twin girls and a son. Barbara enjoys competitive running, biking, oil painting and collage in her free time.