Tamara Cannon
Tamara Cannon
BA LLB (Monash)
Tamara Cannon (’91) is the Founder and CEO of Lille Fro, an Australian charity which funds education for children and skills training for adults living in extreme poverty in some of the remotest places on the planet.net.
Graduating with a Law/Arts degree from Monash University, Tamara practised as a corporate lawyer for one of Australia’s leading law firms before becoming Senior Corporate Counsel with a
large multi-national.
In 2008, Tamara packed up corporate life to work on her own project. While in Asia and with time on her side, Tamara pulled out a map, closed her eyes and pointed to a spot. Her finger landed on Mt Everest, Nepal.
Captivated by the Himalayas, Tamara was inspired to climb the perfect peak, a search which led her to Ladakh in the north of India.
On one climbing trip, Tamara met a little girl living in destitute circumstances. Like many children in her village, this child had never been to school. Tamara decided to pay for her education.
Seeing first-hand the difference she had made to this child’s life, Tamara realised she could not turn her back on other children in similar circumstances. The seed had been planted and Lille Fro had begun.
Tamara is reputedly the first foreigner to have visited many of the isolated communities living in sealed-off regions of Ladakh – home to some of the world’s poorest nomads.
In between building greenhouses at high altitude, visiting villages difficult to find on any map and helping to change the lives of thousands through Lille Fro, Tamara is working on her own writing and photography projects.
Tamara has been awarded Rotary International’s highest commendation, a Paul Harris Medal for service to the community, an honour rarely bestowed on recipients outside of Rotary.
Tamara is happy to call Sydney home.
Updated January 2016