Lisa Jo Symonds

Lisa Jo Symonds is an author from New York, USA, who survived severe childhood trauma including physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, child trafficking, addiction, and overdose, chronicled in her memoir 'The Hands That Held Me.' At 15, she became pregnant, homeless, and learned to survive on the streets, enduring 50 years of hardship before a near-fatal overdose in 2018 led to her recovery. She holds dual Bachelor and Master's degrees in health sciences–Public Health, serves as the American ambassador for Hope for Rural Orphans in Uganda, and funded the Ugandan Water Project.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]