Why Compassionate Circles exists

I did not start here because I studied a problem.

HIV moved through my own family lines and left a silence no one had language for.

Tambu Muzenda, founder of Compassionate Circles

Founder · storyteller · public health leader

In my own words

“First, you learn, then you earn, then you return. I am at point of return.”

In the 1990s, I volunteered at the Positive Living Society of British Columbia — then BCPWA — because I needed to understand what was happening to my own family. I did not know yet the search would become my career.

Twenty-five years of public health work across Africa, Europe, and Canada followed. Uncomfortable Conversations, my dialogue methodology for gender-based violence response, was built under South Africa’s Presidency. Two documentaries followed — iPandemic and The Healing Garden.

Compassionate Circles is where that work turns toward one woman at a time, instead of a policy room.

I coach women over 40, across the globe, through the Drop the Rucksack Framework. I speak. I run workshops and retreats. I work with organisations building psychologically safer leadership cultures. Coming In, my memoir, is where the framework got its name.

Follow Tambu

Questions? Email Tambu — tambu.muzenda@compassionatecircles.com

The road here

A body of work rooted in listening.

The beginning

A family shaped by HIV

HIV moved through my own family lines and left a silence no one had language for. I began searching because I needed to understand what was happening to the people I loved.

The 1990s

The search became the work

I volunteered at the Positive Living Society of British Columbia — then BCPWA. I did not know yet that this search would become my career.

Twenty-five years

Public health and dialogue

Public health work across Africa, Europe, and Canada followed, including Uncomfortable Conversations — a gender-based violence dialogue methodology built under South Africa’s Presidency.

Story on screen

Documenting lived experience

I directed iPandemic and The Healing Garden, two documentaries built from direct community work and the stories people trusted me to hold.

Recognition and evidence

Named, sourced, and earned over time.

Global Reconciliation described Tambu as “an inspirational presence who actively leads on the basis of personal conviction.”

Read the 2020 announcement
  • 2020 Desmond Tutu Reconciliation Fellow, named by Global Reconciliation.
  • Creator of Uncomfortable Conversations under South Africa’s Presidency.
  • Director of iPandemic and The Healing Garden.
  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusive Advisory Council for the Ottawa HIV Treatment Network.
  • Board Member of MISSS.
  • More than 25 years in public health and development across Africa, Europe, and Canada.

The point of return

The work now turns toward one woman at a time.

Explore the pathway Work with an organisation