Dawn lived in Goma, Congo for 3 years, from 2006-2009, which is how she met Argentine and Mapendo. She moved to Congo because her husband was working with a non-profit organization there. Dawn is an English teacher by profession and never imagined that she would work on something like SHONA. However when she met Argentine and Mapendo she saw how talented and determined the women were, and wanted to do something to help bring their work to customers. That is how SHONA was born. Dawn happily admits that SHONA was born because she found herself living in a foreign culture, and was desperately in search of friends to teach her Swahili and to help her make sense of this new world.
Dawn currently lives in Upstate NY with her daughter and husband. For 10 years she has worked on SHONA as a volunteer, while working other jobs during the day. In 2018 she became a co-owner of SHONA along with Argentine and Mapendo and left her other jobs to focus on SHONA full time. She is extremely excited to work with her dear friends, and to see what the future holds for SHONA Congo.
Mapendo, Argentine and Dawn incorporating SHONA Congo in Canada