08/24/2026
*From Lenasia to the World: The Remarkable Journey of Dr. Raiza Kolia*
By Yunus Ahmed Bhamjee
Lenasia has produced generations of people whose contributions have reached far beyond the boundaries of our community. In medicine, law, academia, business, public service and humanitarian work, Lenasians have repeatedly demonstrated that a township born out of adversity can produce people of extraordinary ability and compassion.
Among those who make us proud is Dr. Raiza Kolia —an academic, healthcare executive, humanitarian and international development specialist whose journey began here in Lenasia and ultimately took her across continents and into some of the world's most difficult humanitarian environments.
I have known Raiza since our schooldays. We were neighbours and travelled to school together, and our families shared a friendship that went far beyond ordinary neighbourliness.
Our mothers, in particular, were close friends for five decades. After Raiza's father passed away almost forty years ago, followed soon afterwards by my own father, the two widows became even closer. Their friendship endured through grief, family life and the passing of time.
For me, therefore, Dr. Raiza Kolia is not simply an accomplished professional whose achievements I have read about. She is someone whose journey I have watched develop from a young Lenasian schoolgirl into a woman whose work has touched lives internationally.
After matriculating from Roodepoort Indian High School, Raiza began her professional journey as a social worker with JISWA. It was here that she encountered, at grassroots level, the realities of poverty, inequality and the social challenges affecting ordinary families.
That early experience appears to have shaped a career in which education and professional achievement were always accompanied by a concern for people.
Her academic journey took her to the University of Cape Town, where she completed her Master's degree. She subsequently received a USAID scholarship to pursue her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specialising in social work, gender and international development.
Her professional career in the United States expanded into both academia and healthcare leadership. She earned an MBA in Finance from the University of Pittsburgh, spent approximately 25 years in senior hospital executive positions and also taught graduate students at Fordham University in New York.
But perhaps the most remarkable chapter of her journey came when she increasingly directed her expertise towards humanitarian crises.
From 2016, Dr. Kolia became involved in establishing mental-health and psychosocial support systems for Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Her work recognised an important truth: humanitarian assistance cannot end with providing immediate relief. People affected by war and displacement also need dignity, psychological support, economic opportunity and the ability to rebuild their own lives.
In 2020, together with her husband, Dr. Ernst Mücke, she co-founded Reaching Across Borders (RAB), an international non-profit organisation working in some of the world's most challenging environments, including Lebanon, Syria, Türkiye, Gaza, Poland, Ukraine and South Africa.
Its philosophy reflects something deeply familiar to those who understand community development: people should not merely be recipients of assistance. They should be empowered to become part of the solution.
The organisation's work has included trauma recovery, women's economic empowerment, training community facilitators, and supporting frontline workers and female journalists working in areas affected by conflict.
This is where Dr. Kolia's journey comes full circle.
The young social worker who began by serving families at grassroots level in South Africa became an internationally experienced professional using her knowledge to help communities facing war, displacement and trauma.
Her achievements were recognised in August 2026 when she received the prestigious Woman of Stature Award, another distinction that places a Lenasian name on an international platform.
A Lenasian achievement — and a Lenasian responsibility
Dr. Raiza Kolia's story is more than an individual success story.
It is part of the larger story of Lenasia.
Our community was not created in circumstances of privilege. It was shaped by displacement, adversity, determination and the desire of families to build better lives for their children. From those circumstances emerged teachers, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, academics, religious scholars, artists, activists and humanitarian leaders.
Many travelled beyond Lenasia, but they carried something of Lenasia with them.
Dr. Kolia's life demonstrates that excellence is not measured merely by titles, degrees or positions. It is measured by what we do with the opportunities we receive and, ultimately, by the lives we touch.
Her journey—from a Lenasian neighbourhood and a local social-work environment to international humanitarian work—is therefore something our entire community can celebrate.
It reminds us that Lenasia's greatest export has never been merely talent; it has been people with a conscience.
Dr. Raiza Kolia is one such person.
And for those of us who knew her when she was simply Raiza, our neighbour and school friend, there is a particular pride in seeing where that journey has taken her.
From Lenasia to the world, she has carried with her the values of compassion, resilience, education and service.
That is an achievement worthy not only of recognition, but of remembrance.
