Tali Nates – Director of Facilitation

Tali Nates, the Director of Facilitation, is an expert on tolerance, identity and human rights, and besides heading up VUKA’s facilitation programme, she lectures widely on these issues, and participates in many related conferences and debates around the world. She was the keynote speaker at the "Tolerance, Respect and Human Rights Conference" held at Charles University in the Czech Republic in 2001, and was also part of the Task Team for the WCAR (World Conference Against Racism) Youth Summit.

A highly respected authority on genocide and the Holocaust, she was awarded the Goldman Sacks South African Fellowship for 2004/2005 at "Facing History and Ourselves" an international organisation that connects the history of genocide to the moral questions many young people face in their own lives.

Up until the end of 2003 she held the position of Head of Education at the Foundation for Tolerance Education.

In 2005 Tali lead the 230 strong South African delegation to the March of the Living – a historical journey to Poland and Israel for the 60 year commemoration of the end of the Holocaust.
Back to Top

Suraya Essop - Facilitator

Suraya Essop is a full time facilitator with Vulindlela™. She facilitates the Vuka process to diverse groups around South Africa. She specialises in the fields of anti-bias, HIV/Aids and sexuality education, life skills and human rights.

Suraya was an educator in the Gauteng Department of Education for 14 years. She taught Afrikaans, English and guidance and was also the counsellor of her secondary school. As she excelled in her position, she was promoted to management position in the Department of Education and served first as a Facilitator for Special Needs Education within the Boksburg District (C6) and then as the: HIV/Aids and Sexuality Education facilitator for the Psychological Services - Guidance/Life Skills in Ekurhuleni East (D5).

Suraya is a gifted facilitator with vast experience in the field of anti-bias and anti-discrimination. She represented the anti-Racism and Training (ART) Network in Germany and facilitated training for Educators, Non-Governmental Organisations, Police and Social Welfare Departments in 1999. She took part in many different conferences and seminars and was a guest speaker in the Berlin conference “Learning from the South” in October 1999. She was awarded the Fulbright American Embassy scholarship for Second Language Teachers in South Africa at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. She embarked on an intensive course where she learned to develop material for classroom implementation in the South African context in 2005.

Suraya completed her Masters Degree (M.Ed.) in Educational Management and Leadership at the University of Johannesburg (RAU) in 2006.
Back to Top

During his employment in the National Department of Education’s Race and Values Directorate he actively worked towards the promotion of Human Rights and Values in South African Schools. Gerrit was a primary school teacher for three years before joining the Gauteng Department of Education for nine years as an official dealing primarily with life skills, HIV/AIDS, democracy, human rights, inclusion, racism and anti-discrimination issues in Gauteng.

Gerrit presented numerous workshops to educators, government officials, labour union officials, NGO’s and communities in South Africa and the broader Southern African Region. During 2001 he was invited in his capacity as a member of the Gauteng Anti Racism Training Network to address an international Conference titled “Germany a Land of Migration’ in Germany. He also participated in various Forum Discussions on human rights and conducted Anti-Discrimination Training Courses during this visit.

He was selected in 2002 to participate in a fully sponsored Fulbright American Embassy, six-week program for 28 South African teacher-trainers involved in English language, HIV/AIDS and Citizenship education at Ohio University in the United States.

Gerrit specializes in the fields of human rights, anti-racism, anti-bias, HIV/AIDS, Life Skills, Sexuality Education and Educational Psychology.
Back to Top

Dr Christine Boon – Director of Facilitation

Christine Boon is a registered psychologist specializing in the field of social psychology. She spent many years as Human Resources Director in Group Africa, (an international marketing company) assisting in the development of interactive leadership. This concept, developed by Mike Boon, focuses strongly on dealing with diversity, personal accountability, staff empowerment, and combining multicultural influences in the workplace to develop powerful workplace communities.

Christine also facilitated a Businesswomen’s Support group for four years, which involved women from various industries and types of business. Designing and facilitating transformational interventions for South African Women in Dialogue (SAWID) has continued Christine’s work with women.
As part of Vulindlela™ during 2001/2002, she was primarily concerned with transformation and diversity in First National Bank; running workshops for staff at all levels, training in-house facilitators, and monitoring the ongoing activities for sustainability. Following her interest in positive psychology and transformation, Christine facilitated a series of “Personal Resilience” workshops for South African Breweries, and has recently completed her PhD in the field of psychological resilience. She has also been involved in curriculum development for Community Psychology at Unisa, is a Lifeline counselor, and has had research published in the South African Journal of Psychology.
Christine is currently engaged in facilitating the “Vuka” transformational process in various organizations.
Back to Top

 

Douglas Maphosa - Operations

Douglas has a long history in managing field operations. He worked at Group Africa as a director in the operations department before moving on to work on his own in the hospitality industry.

 

His time was well spent being an excellent ambassador for South Africa, showing tourists the positive side of our country.
He then decided to join us on a full time basis and currently works as our Immersion™ Operations Manager throughout South Africa, in both urban and rural areas.
Back to Top

Andy Coetzee - Facilitator

Andy has extensive knowledge of people and the environment through many years of working in the service industry.
He has always had a love for and so been involved in the natural habitat, having been involved extensively with conservationism involving eco-tourism. His knowledge of fauna and flora is an asset, as anyone who has spent time with him will attest to.

In his spare time, Andy enjoys being active, having taken part in the most recent Iron Man and ending 3rd in his category, he seems to know no end.
Andy is also an accomplished author, having released his first book “Fishing Yourself Single”, co-authored with Craig Thomassen and released by Struik publishers.

He currently works at Vulindlela™ as an Immersion™ Facilitator nationally in all areas, both urban and rural.
Back to Top

Nhlanhla Pitso – Project Co-ordinator

Nhlanhla has worked for Business Against Crime SA – which is building community and business confidence and support by communicating the successes of the fight against crime on a consistent and aggressive basis.

She has always had an interest in discovering life’s purpose, enjoys human relationships, discussing matters of the heart and soul and living to her full potential. She is currently a very able Project Co-Ordinator. Nhlanhla is adaptable and feels comfortable working and communicating with people from various different backgrounds.
Back to Top

 

Kathrine Campbell – Client Service

Kathrine is a Human Resources Professional with 6 years Operational and Specialist HR experience in a multi-national FMCG environment. She is currently Vulindlela’s full time Client Relationship Manager.

Kathrine has an Honours Degree in Industrial Psychology from Durban University and is a multi-linguist (English, Spanish, Afrikaans, Zulu and French) with experience of working and living in the UK, Europe and the US.

Kathrine is proudly South African and wishes to make a difference by applying her experience to building our country. Vulindlela provides the perfect platform to do so as she brings her cross-cultural experience into her facilitation role. She is an accredited Vuka facilitator and has facilitated the “Vuka” transformation process within the First Rand Group.
Back to Top