Founder

Priscilla Higham was raised in Botswana where her father was a District Commissioner working with the remote tribes of the Kalahari and Whitehall. During this time, Priscilla witnessed the implementation of well-meaning colonial model interventions invariably fall apart after the source of aid left.

In the 1980s Priscilla engaged in a hunger strike in Kenya with Wangari Maathai and a group of women to protest their sons being imprisoned without trial. Priscilla returned to Kenya as a journalist in 2000, when researching an article on African women for Telegraph magazine. Wangari took Priscilla into the slums to meet a number of grassroots women who rejected imposed systems and instead formulated their own way of successfully supporting their communities by using African models of change. Priscilla, intrigued by this community resilience, continued to research communities in remote rural areas. This research revealed the extent of the network of women who are the front-line response to the AIDS pandemic and main support system for orphans and vulnerable children. Particularly impressive were the women who had mobilised to address the needs of the children, despite lack of resources. Priscilla recognized that women-run grassroots groups were the vital entry point into these communities. She was influenced by, amongst others, E.F Schumacher’s belief in ‘smallness within bigness’ and that the investment in people must become the basis for sustainable development. The purpose of aid is to make women self-reliant and independent through relevant knowledge and the methods of self-help.

Priscilla founded ASAP with the intent of listening to the proactive women in rural communities and funding their self-realised solutions to meet the material, educational and psychosocial support needs of the increasing numbers of Orphans and Vulnerable Children as well as improve their own lives.

Now retired from active field work, Priscilla continues her commitment to her values, beliefs and vision by contributing her wisdom to ASAP’s board and team as well as raising funds and awareness. Her legacy is the profound impact on rural and otherwise unsupported communities that were able to increase resilience and offer their children a chance to thrive.