Founder and Technical Advisor – Alie Eleveld

Alie Eleveld is founder and previous Country Director of Safe Water and AIDS Project (SWAP)in Western Kenya since its start in 2005 up to July 2017 when she handed over the leadership to Alex Mwaki . She currently serves as technical advisor and as member of the Board of Directors.

Alie was born in the Netherlands where she went to Nursing School and qualified as a registered and pediatric Nurse doing most of her practical’s in a children’s hospital in the Hague. She further specialized in Tropical Medicine at the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium.

In 1984 she left for Zambia and initially worked as a Primary Health Care Coordinator in a rural Hospital setting up maternal and child health preventive services for rural communities including refugees from Mozambique. She then was transferred to a nearby referral hospital and worked as the AIDS Coordinator setting up a comprehensive program of counseling, home based care, training of counselors, STI and TB clinics, preventive health education through drama in the community among others.

After 11 years Zambia,  Alie did short contracts and consultancies in Congo, Southern Sudan and Nairobi Slums and Lamu in Kenya. In 1996 she worked for one year for Memisa, a development organization in Rotterdam in the Netherlands handling incoming proposals for the health desk of Eastern Africa.

In 1997 Alie pursued a Diploma in Community Health Course at AMREF in Nairobi. After graduation she was posted for 3 years to the Catholic Diocese of Kakamega in Western Kenya to work as the Primary Health Care Coordinator. At the end of her contract she was employed by the Society for Women and AIDS in Kenya, offering technical support for the Western Region in Kenya. Alie joined CDC as the AIDS Support Group Coordinator in November 2002 and worked inSiaya and Kisumu countiesin Western Kenya. Here she was responsible for building the capacity of HIV support groups, with HIV related trainings and Safe Water Systems Interventions. After CDC Alie joined Mildmay International as the Home Based Care Coordinator in Western Kenya until 2005. In January 2005 she started and registered Safe Water and AIDS Project (SWAP) as local NGO, which was started with funding from Rotary Atlanta and currently is an award winning organization providing public health programs, research and emergency response in the Western Region.  SWAP is HENNET member and Alie served for 8 years in the board of this National Health NGO Network including from 2017 to 2019 as National Chair.

Alie graduated in 2009 with a Master in Public Health (long distance) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She further completed a Course in International Public Health Consulting in 2017 at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

She is Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of Nyanza Reproductive Health Society in Kisumu and Warden for the Dutch community in Western Kenya on behalf of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Nairobi.

Alie was appointed in the Kisumu Health Advisory Council in 2020 and as Lake Region Economic Bloc COVID 19 Advisory committee member of eminent persons to provide advisory services to the Governors of 14 counties.

Alie was decorated in 2013 by the Dutch Queen as a Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau for her dedication and work with vulnerable communities. In 2014 she became recipient of the Crystal of Hope Award endowed with Euro 100,000 and handed to her during the opening ceremony of Life Ball 2014 in Vienna, Austria. Under Alie’s leadership SWAP received international recognition and over 60 studies were published in peer reviewed international journals, where SWAP has been implementing partner.