Lending a Helping Hand
Building Communities One Building at a Time
UNITED 2 HELP INC is a 501c3 (tax id #84-2254969) governed by laws of New York and the United States.
Mission Statement
United 2 Help’s mission is to build school and clinic buildings in the rural areas without infrastructure to serve displaced refugees. Donor dollars spent for simple, basic infrastructure in areas absorbing climate and political refugees go further by providing infrastructure that will last decades. Basic clinics and classrooms can be used to serve a wide variety of needs: schools, community meetings, medical clinic and development program centers. Help us bring dignity to those in need
Board members and directors
The Key Team
Our Board of Directors and our Board of Advisors are comprised of utterly determined, highly capable women with excellent reputations. Our organization is supported by a wide network of enthusiastic working professionals who believe in our mission.
Our board members and advisors have extensive professional experience in the areas of planning, budgeting and even construction. Please support our efforts and let us know if you are interested in joining our team.
Cecilia Goulart
Director - New York
Cecilia Goulart is a cheerful and energetic lady who enjoys assisting others.
She is currently residing in Ithaca as a retired lawyer.
She enjoys traveling and has visited many places, and the poverty and vulnerability of children and women she encountered around the world inspired her to want to help transform people’s lives for the better.
She is dedicated to helping women and children with good health facilities and services, as well as schools, as one of the founders of United 2 Help Inc.
She is dedicated to assisting this organization in achieving its vision and objectives.
Nilceia Rodrigues
Director - Brazil
Nilceia is a Brazilian who lives in Rio de Janeiro. She is a mother, wife, and grandma to three lovely granddaughters. She is also a Pastora at the Gloria em Gloria Methodist Church. She went to Mozambique after Hurricane Idai and saw the devastation and how desperately the people needed help. She felt compelled to help these people, and she promised herself that her new mission would be to lift one person at a time to better their lives.
I understood that assisting others is good for the soul, and that blessing someone else’s life enriches us as well. Everything we do for others comes back to us, and the joy of serving others has no monetary worth. Nilceia
Dr. Ines Machungo
Board of Advisors - Mozambique
Ines is….
Mercedes Gouveia
Director - Canada
Mercedes Gouveia is a Mozambican native who has lived in Canada for the past 30 years.
She considers children to be the humanity’s nursery. She is highly sympathetic to the plight of the poor, and understands the value of education and the role of mothers in the lives of children, having been impoverished herself..
She and her husband currently support children in orphanages and engage in fundraising initiatives, a former Suco/Cuso cooperant in Mozambique.
Mercedes is a former CPA-CGA who wants to use her experience to help United 2 Help.
‘’Children today, adults tomorrow. Let’s make them, you and I, good people to enhance the quality of the world.’’
Deborah Munitz
Board of Advisors - New York
Deborah was born and raised in New York City. She earned a BA in Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in applied mathematics and economics She raised her family with her husband in Rockland County where she became a community leader.
Ms. Munitz worked for IBM for five years followed by six years at a software development firm where she rose to lead the project implementation group,. Since she left in 1995 she has worked as a founder and operational manager of several start-up companies and not-for-profits.
She is bringing her expertise in planning, operations and marketing to United 2 Help.
Ana Zainadine
Director - Miami
Ana was born in Havana, Cuba and spent over 20 years in Mozambique. Her time in Mozambique fostered a love of its culture, but more importantly, of its people. She spent her time there working with several NGOs, such as Doctors Without Borders and Spanish Cooperation.
Her strong passion for women’s empowerment, child protection and education, as well improving communities drivers her ambition, while her experience in program management and design, grant writing and monitoring and evaluation makes her a proud member of our team.
Candida Sousa
Board of Advisors
Candida Sousa Bio Here
From Our Chairwoman
Sandra Matonse is a spouse, a mother and a grandmother with a strong desire to do good. Sandra worked for an NGO for more than 10 years in Mozambique before emigrating to the United States. Sandra works full time but together with her husband she organized a food bank successfully for the victims of the floods in 2000 by mobilizing her neighbors, friends and restaurants to help minimize the lack of food at temporary shelters.
After Cyclone Idai devastated the central region of Mozambique, with support of her husband and close friends she founded United 2 Help Inc with to bring permanent changes to the lives of woman and children in need in the rural areas of Mozambique. She realized that food and medical supplies were immediately needed but that long term support involved providing real brick and mortar infrastructure and this became the long term mission. Sandra’s passion and perseverance has taken a dream and made it into a reality.
“We can’t be indifferent with so many people suffering around the world, specially women and children. We have to Act. I ask you and all to join this priceless mission to change the world to provide schools and health infrastructures/services for all around the world.”
– Sandra Matonse