Pennina Shilongo builds sustainable futures for kids in need
Behind every strong organisation is a force quietly working to ensure its mission endures. For SOS Children’s Villages Namibia, that force is Pennina Shilongo.
Shilongo is the national corporate partnerships and grants officer at SOS Children’s Villages Namibia, where she leads efforts to secure sustainable funding and cultivate strategic partnerships that deliver holistic support to children, families and youth across the country.
SOS Children’s Villages is the world’s largest organisation dedicated to ensuring that children and young people without parental care, or at risk of losing it, grow up with the care, relationships, and support they need to become their strongest selves.
Established in Namibia in 1984, the organisation continues to build families for children in need while contributing to community development nationwide.
“My passion for development work was shaped early in life through photographs my father sent home during his United Nations peacekeeping missions in Liberia and later the Democratic Republic of Congo," Shilongo explained.
These images sparked a deep curiosity about how people, policy and systems intersect to shape lives.
That curiosity guided her academic journey, which includes a master’s degree in international relations and economic diplomacy from institutions in Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as a postgraduate diploma in sustainable development from the Baltic University Programme in Sweden.
Her professional career spans global institutions, beginning at the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva, where she worked on policy formulation, planning and monitoring and evaluation of human rights programmes.
She later joined the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna, contributing to initiatives addressing the global synthetic drug challenge.
Across these roles, Shilongo developed a defining principle that policy must be guided by practical, on-the-ground realities to deliver meaningful and lasting impact.
Strong foundations
In her current role, Shilongo manages grant lifecycles while building corporate and institutional partnerships that ensure children thrive in care, families are strengthened, and youth are empowered to become resilient and independent.
The work is not without its challenges. "One of the most significant challenges I navigated is the shifting donor landscape shaped by global geopolitical changes, requiring strategic prioritisation and long-term foresight," she said.
Looking ahead, Shilongo said: “I envision SOS Children’s Villages Namibia as a beacon of holistic care, supported by diversified funding streams, strong partnerships with government and the private sector, and evidence-based programmes that combine local insight with international best practice.”
