Mme Snoekie Mabena-Saleh is an award-winning and highly decorated South African entrepreneur, philanthropist, and community leader. Known for building purpose-driven businesses and empowering others, her life took a profound turn through personal loss.
When she became a widow, Snoekie experienced firsthand how grief can quietly isolate even the strongest people. Beyond the emotional pain, she encountered the absence of safe spaces where widows and widowers could speak openly, be understood, and find practical support without judgement.
Rather than allowing loss to silence her, she transformed it into purpose.
Keep Hope Alive was founded to ensure that widows and widowers are not left to navigate grief alone. Rooted in compassion, dignity, and community, the organisation creates spaces where people can grieve honestly, heal at their own pace, and begin rebuilding life with support around them.
This is not charity born from distance.
It is support shaped by lived experience.
Through Keep Hope Alive, Snoekie continues her life’s work of restoring dignity, strengthening communities, and reminding others that even after loss, hope can still be held — and life can begin again.
