Catherine worked at the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana in her 20s for UNHCR and CBW, a Liberian grassroots charity. She left a successful career in TV drama in her 30s to complete a MA in Refugee Care at the Tavistock Clinic and Centre for Trauma, Asylum and Refugees in Essex. She has since worked at the Red Cross and Room to Heal with survivors of human rights abuses, providing befriending and casework support, before setting up MamaSuze with bestfriend and co-director Annabel Rook in 2021. Catherine believes passionately in the power of women’s only spaces to encourage creative playfulness, which can enrich our lives and unite us. She is also a writer, daydreamer and mother to 3 adolescent daughters, including identical twins.

Miriam is a socially engaged visual artist, theatre designer and facilitator whose practice explores creativity as a space for connection, expression and social change. She has developed arts community-based psychosocial projects with War Child Netherlands, Save the Children, UNICEF and the British Council, working with children affected by conflict in the DRC, Sudan, Syria, Eritrea, Kosovo and Georgia. A former artist in residence at SOAS, team member with Art Refuge in Northern France, creative collaborator with Clean Break, 20 Stories High+ Graeae, her work centres care, imagination and collective resilience.

Anella has dedicated her career to social causes, including 13 years in youth education and public engagement at ActionAid, an international charity working with women and girls living in poverty.  She went on to work for Glimpse, a collective of creative professionals working for a kinder, greener world and then as a freelance Creative Producer with organisations such as Choose Love, WaterAid and Save the Children. As the daughter and spouse of migrants, she is passionate about refugee and migrant rights and the way creativity can empower people and create change. She believes everyone is an artist in their own way, and creativity and play helps children and adults alike to thrive.
 

Sarah is also an artist and creative producer. She manages our website, graphics and social media campaigns.
 

We could not work in the way we do without being supported every week by our brilliant volunteers, who are women with lived experience of displacement and gender based violence. Sabira, a talented nurse originally from Afghanistan. Sandra, originally from Congo Brazzaville and Patricia, who Annabel had worked with in many groups, originally from Nigeria. Our wonderful purpose built creche is headed by Debbie, an accredited and experienced childcare professional and mother of two girls herself. 

We are also supported by Susie, Annabel’s lovely mum, who ran groups at Freedom from Torture many years ago. She is the honorary grandma of the group and why we named the organisation MamaSuze.