WIMLER was originally initiated by the Rispens and Noel families. The driving force behind the foundation is Leila Rispens-Noel. At present, WIMLER has expanded its team of dedicated people living in the Philippines and other countries performing voluntary work. WIMLER welcomes people who are interested to join the team. We need committed people who are interested to raise funds and those who have skills and knowledge in public relations (printed and electronic media, graphic design, IT, etc.), community organizing, agriculture, entrepreneurship, marketing, etc.
Would you like to support Wimler? If so, please contact Wimler to learn more.”
LEILA RISPENS-NOEL, President and Co-Founder
Leila presently works as Senior Advisor for International Network of Alternative Financial Institutions (INAFI), a network of more than 300 microfinance institutions located in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Before she took the position as Senior Advisor, she was Interim Remittances Programme Manager where she managed the start up of EC-funded project titled “Harnessing the Potentials of Migration for Development by Linking Microfinance Institutions and Immigrant Associations” which is implemented in 10 Sub-Sahara African and 10 European countries.
Before joining INAFI, Leila was Programme Manager at Oxfam Novib, a Dutch development agency based in the Netherlands. She provided technical assistance to Netherlands-based, Dutch non-governmental and diaspora organizations with projects in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Cameroon. She was the focal person on microfinance, remittances and migration and development. She also designed and implemented capacity building programs tailored for diaspora organisations. Since joining Oxfam Novib in 2001, Leila has been advocating for the inclusion of migration in development strategies and the active participation of diaspora organizations in decision-making processes in the field of migration and development.
Leila was a member of International Advisory Committee of the Civil Society Global Forum for Migration and Development (GFMD) 2008. She is presently a member of the Migrants Advisory Board (MAB) of the EC-UN Joint-Initiative for Migration and Development.
During her free time, Leila is actively involved in assisting various projects in the Philippines. She is the present president of Association of Bansaleños Worldwide (ABW) – a virtual hometown association of former residents of Bansalan (Davao del Sur, Philippines) who now lives in USA, Canada, Australia, and various Asian and European countries. She is President and co-Founder of WIMLER Partnership for Social Progress, a private, non-profit, and non-governmental organization that operates in Mindanao, Philippines.
Leila earned her degree in Bachelor of Science in Commerce (Major Accounting) at the Holy Cross of Davao College (Philippines) and diploma in Rural and Agricultural Project Planning at the Institute of Social Studies (The Netherlands).
For more information about her achievements, visit:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/leilarispensnoel
or her Blog – http://diasporajourney.blogspot.com/