Meet the Trustees
Amanda Faber
Founder & CEO
AMANDA FABER founded KINOE after living and travelling extensively in India, Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. While teaching at a project in Mumbai for children living on the street, she met and worked with Shaheen Kumar, who had recently founded Akanksha, also teaching at the centre headed by Rachna Mathur. Returning to the UK, Amanda set up KINOE and invited the first group of trustees to join. She identified the Lo Kunphen project in Mustang, Nepal, and worked closely with Paul and Mary Slawson, who very generously funded the building of the school.
Passionate about the power of education to change lives, Amanda has since worked with a wide group of trustees, freelancers, and volunteers organising many fundraising events. Since its inception in 1996, KINOE has gone from strength to strength, providing basic education for thousands of children. It prides itself on running on very low overheads in order to provide maximum impact. Many of the children who were in the project are now teachers or university graduates.
An early years educator and mother of two originally from India, RACHNA MATHUR began her career at GD Somani Public School in 1992, one of Mumbai’s premier schools, as an Early Years teacher.
During that time, she also volunteered as Head Teacher, Education Consultant, and Co-ordinator for Akanksha Foundation, an educational trust for underprivileged children in Mumbai. While at Akanksha, she was in charge of 60 children from the age of 3 to 8 years at first and was then promoted to oversee 8 centres as an educational consultant.
Rachna holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Early Child Care and Education from Sophia College, Mumbai, India. She has trained in the Montessori method and in Special Needs. Rachna has been with American School in London since 2007 and is currently a Kindergarten creative arts assistant teacher.
Elizabeth Elder
Trustee
REENA MOHAMEDI is the most recent member of the Trustee team. She spent her childhood years in Mumbai and continues to visit her family and friends there regularly.
Reena believes strongly in the power of education. She is a commercial lawyer with almost thirty years’ experience working on projects in Africa.
She was immediately drawn to KINOE’s work and ethos. Leveraging family visits to the Indian sub-continent, Reena is keen to see firsthand the initiatives sponsored by KINOE, and to support Amanda and the KINOE team.
Rachna Mathur
Trustee
ELIZABETH ELDER has long been an admirer and supporter of KINOE, and became a trustee in 2024.
Born and raised in Australia, she lived in London for 15 years before moving to New York, where she now lives with her husband and three children.
Elizabeth and her son, Tom, spent time volunteering in a school for girls from impoverished backgrounds close to Delhi, in India. This and other travel experiences have given her a passion for helping children, and girls in particular, to have access to quality education.
She believes that in educating a girl, you educate a village.
Reena Mohamedi
Trustee