“I have a long history with Profamilia, my mother was a volunteer during the days of the original founder, Dr Tamayo and I was a youth volunteer until my early 20s”.

“I think my work with Profamilia generated a life long love of and commitment to working with the community, which helped other areas of my life, like when I was appointed Mayor of my local town”. 

Angela helped to take films and other Information, Education and Communication projects into the local community.  This proved invaluable in terms of extending the reach of Profamilia.   

“It helped hone my organizational skills and helped me learn about leadership too”.  

Angela was elected to the Governing Council in the late 1980s.  She spent four years as IPPF President. 

During her time as President Angela tried to bridge the divide between staff and volunteers, encouraging them to work together more closely.  

“I think the qualities needed for a good volunteer are good interpersonal skills, able to relate to people from all walks of life. Someone who believes in the issues, wants to learn more and be prepared for criticism, SRH is not always fashionable and in some societies is controversial, therefore it is the role of the volunteer to make it fashionable, link it to contemporary issues to make SRH always relevant. 

A volunteer has to want to give time and never loose the belief that they will make a difference no matter how tough it gets”. 

“In terms of working in Colombia, although Profamilia have done amazing work in mainstreaming family planning, however, there is still a lot of work to be done and new challenges keep appearing.  Our work is still not done.”