Zilla was born and trained as a lawyer in South Africa, and later studied psychology. She moved to Germany almost twenty years ago, and spent nine of those years at adidas  where, alongside her job, she began studying corporate social responsibility. That study was the start of a longer search: what would actually work, if you wanted a German donor’s money to reach a small community project safely, and stay accountable the whole way there. She did not want to start a project of her own. She wanted to be the person in between someone who visits every partner herself, asks hard questions, and stays close enough afterwards to know exactly what happened to every euro. In 2021, that search became a reality – Sawabona Africa e.V.