ABOUT US

The Board
Sandile SwamaSandile Swana
Chairman
Sandile is a member of the Institute of Directors. He completed a B.Comm at Wits University, Johannesburg and has also completed the Business Advisors Programme at WBS-Centre for Developing Business. He holds an MBA from the University of Pretoria as well as a BTh in Ethics from UNISA. He spent seven years in the retail sector of Caltex Oil and Zenex Oil and has also worked as Group Operations Manager for the JSE listed, Don Group. Sandile is currently a consultant to industry.
Susannah FarrSusannah Farr
Chief Executive Officer
Susannah led the founding process of the GOLD Peer Education Development Agency. She is a visionary with the ability to motivate and lead others toward a common vision for youth transformation. She holds an M Phil degree (cum laude) in Management of HIV and AIDS in the World of Work and did her thesis in Youth Peer Education. She has also recently completed a business management qualification from the University of Stellenbosch. She has been involved in youth development for the past 9 years in 4 different positions which include: a six month project with youth and orphans in Egypt; developing and facilitating counseling and community work training for the AIDS Training Information and Counselling Centre (ATICC); and founding two community HIV and AIDS organizations. She was a primary pioneer in the methodology and material that currently makes up the GOLD Peer Education Model.
Non-Executive Directors

Alicia Davids
Alicia is Academic Director and shareowner of Margaret Nicol & Associates trading as In Tuition, a nationally accredited private training provider accredited with the ETDP SETA. She manages all education & training in the company; supervising 3 managers and all associate education practitioners and overseeing all activities revolving around service delivery of programmes running in various provinces. She has extensive experience in teaching and facilitation and has also worked in communications and fundraising. Alicia has a B Ed Hons from UCT as well as an undergraduate degree in Psychology and English from UWC. She is currently completing her Masters in Education at UCT.
Samuel Kareithi Samuel Kareithi
Research and Evaluation
Sam is a development economist and consultant in both the economic development sector and the corporate world, having worked widely in Africa and Europe. He has taught at universities in the UK and is currently an accredited faculty member at Stellenbosch University, teaching community development at Cornerstone Christian College. He has three degrees, including a Master of Science in International Development from the University of Bath, UK, and a PhD in Development Economics from the University of Luton, UK. He is involved in building the capacity of global church leaders in the areas of poverty and development and also in monitoring and evaluation of organisations to determine how they achieve their development objectives.

Rachel Mash Rachel Mash
Technical Support
Rachel has a Diploma in Missiology with All Nations College, MA (hons) Edinburgh University, Scotland and an MTh from Stellenbosch University where her thesis was ‘Youth sexuality in Anglicans – aged 12-19’. She is currently busy with her PhD. She is employed full time by the Fikelela AIDS Project which includes: HIV/AIDS task team church mobilisation, Orphan support centres and youth sexuality programmes. Rachel is the assistant priest at St Marks District Six and is a Board member of Sibanye Economic empowerment.

 
Rachel Mash Dr. Thapelo J. Otlogetswe
Thapelo is a corpus linguist and lexicographer in the Department of English, University of Botswana. He lectures in English linguistics and compiles Setswana/English dictionaries. Thapelo was educated at the University of Botswana, University of Oxford and University of Pretoria. His principal research area is the use of large textual databases in language analyses, primarily for the generation of dictionaries and for lexical analysis. He has compiled the largest Setswana corpus (textual database for linguistic research) comprising over 13 million words. Some of his critical research, together with Dr. Kevin Scanell (St Louis University, USA), has resulted in the development of a Setswana spellchecker used by OpenOffice. Thapelo has authored two books; one, with two other colleagues, another one, a bilingual dictionary (English-Setswana Dictionary, Pentagon Publishers, 2007) he compiled on his own. The English-Setswana Dictionary has been prescribed as a principal reference text at primary schools. Thapelo has also written widely on the linguistic challenges of language contact faced by the Setswana language and the characteristic differences between the varieties of Setswana in Botswana and South Africa. Thapelo has also advised the management team of Mokgosi Media Holdings on orthography matters in the development of a Setswana newspaper, Mokgosi newspaper, after which he was retained as part of its editorial team and served as a columnist for a number of years. Thapelo. has also served as a resource person in a variety of forums, amongst these being local training seminars and conferences, and he has spoken on national radio on Setswana genres and varieties. He is currently working on two major projects: the development of a Setswana Pronunciation dictionary and the Setswana Rhyming dictionary.