Homeless Families Conference | Lived Experience with Dr Laura Neilson and Agatha Phiri

Agatha is Comms Person and Founder of Agatha's Space a project under Support and Action for Women's Network(SAWN), She is also an Associate Community Organiser for New Economic Foundation (NEF), a Podcaster, an HIV activist, Volunteer, Peer Mentor and Postive Speaker for George House Trust.

Her work as an activist has brought so much healing and hope to people living with HIV but also awareness in communities especially to understand the Undetectable is equal to Untransmittable messages which has been a key towards ending HIV stigma and new transmissions. She has hosted two major World AIDS Day Virgils in Manchester and has done a lot of HIV awareness sessions in schools, community groups, Medical and non-medical professionals, on social media and in person.

Through Rose Ssali, founder of SAWN, Agatha launched Agatha's Space to support African women oppressed by Stigma and discrimination, and to empower them to live a happy confident life.
She is also a Podcaster, trained by BBC's Ngunan Adam founder of iWoman Academy CIC.
She is part of Greater Manchester System Change, Oldham System Change, seats on the Deputy Mayor of Manchester's Domestic Abuse Panel and is also a part of the Greater Manchester's Living Income Campaign.

Agatha is very passionate about diversity, equality, inclusion and challenging broken systems that discriminate, marginalise, and dehumanise underprivileged people.

She grew up at an orphanage in Malawi, studied journalism and later became a Malawi Electoral Commission Stringer in 2009 before coming to Scotland as an actress. She was then stuck in the immigration system for 7 years before becoming a mother and an asylum seeker for another 7 years in England. Her experience as a single mother asylum seeker forbidden to work, surviving on £5 a day and living in temporary accommodation motivated her to start challenging injustices through social media, and other grassroots organisations before joining SAWN.

Agatha is a trained Journalist currently studying Systemic Action Research and has recently been hired by NEFF as an Associate Community Organiser on NEFF and Runnymede Trust's Power to Prosper campaign which aims at addressing poverty and inequality in Black and Minority Ethnic Communities in the UK through Participatory Action Research.

Homeless Families Conference: Dare to Hope was hosted by the Shared Health Foundation in partnership with GMCA.

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