In Memory of Mama Ndoda

We were recently informed that on 23 July 2010, Mama N’Doda passed away after a short illness. Mama was a climate change activist from Togo and one of the Changemakers who spoke at the first Annual Meeting of the Global Humanitarian Forum in Geneva. She was a founding member of JVE International.

Rishika Das Roy, who also spoke at the GHF, remembers Mama:

“This is what I`d like to share about her—

I remember how she didnt know me at all, we shared a room—as strangers, nor did we know a common language—she spoke French and I English—all i ever heard her say was “Je t’aime beaucoup”, and “Merci beaucoup”. She communicated via gesticulations or via John—always smiling, spreading love and hugs.
 
She was so passionate about her work—she gave me a CD with her NGO`s work on it—how a community built a solar panel from scratch. I remember having immense respect for her and her work. On the GHF stage, I didn’t have my translating headphones on—I was just listening to her speak and I saw her eyes brim with water—and I understood the anger and pain in her, at the ecological situation in Togo.

I remember how cold she was on the Jungfrau Joch, the Swiss mountain – never having experienced that cold a weather.

I remember her dancing ,and always humming some tune or the other—in seven days she spread so much of sunshine it was unbelievable.

Je t’aime beaucoup, Mama”