Girls and Boys Town South Africa

Karen Farred is the CEO at Girls and Boys Town. Previously the Head of Family Services, she has 29 years of experience as a social worker. She specialises in therapeutic work with emotionally and behaviourally challenged children and youth in different settings, including clinical settings; shelters for street children and children’s homes. Karen assisted the Director of Youth Services in policy development which was done in consultation with senior residential care staff. Prior to joining Girls and Boys Town, she worked at the Child and Family Unit at Lentegeur Psychiatric Hospital where she served as the Unit Manager, and was the Manager of Claremont Children’s Shelter, a project of Child Welfare. She conducted research in the treatment of Conduct Disorder and the findings of her research were presented at the National Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Conference. Karen has a Degree in BA Social Work from the University of the Western Cape.

During her initial career, she was involved in financial control of major works contracts at Public Works Department. She has served at Trust Building Society, and has set up record systems for investments and housing loan accounts. She has held several portfolios including Head of Records and Systems at Trust Building Society, Personnel Officer at the National Research Institute for Oceanology (part of the CSIR), Personnel Manager at Ninham Shand, Human Resource consultant on few contracts at BPSA, and Human Resource Manager at Cape Town Child Welfare Society. She has also served as Principal Officer at Child Welfare Pension and Provident Funds. She has served as Chairman of the MSP/Sizwe Medical Aid Regional Committee. She currently serves as a Trustee on the Boards of several NPOs, where she is mainly involved in human resource management and corporate governance sub-committees including Stellenbosch Hospice NPC, Heartlands Baby Sanctuary and GBTSA. She holds a BA (1968) and HONS B&A (1984) from Stellenbosch University.

Jabulile currently works as a Human Resources Director at Hatch and Goba, having also served as a senior HR adviser at the same company. She was previously a project manager and training consultant for youth development at First National Bank’s Technology Division. Her educational background includes a Masters in Human Resources: Industrial Psychology (Rand Afrikaans University); and BAdmin and BAdmin (Hons) in Industrial Psychology (University of the Western Cape).

Jacqueline is a senior supervisor at Jewish community services, as well as a social work consultant for the Johannesburg parent and child-counselling centre. She is also a mentor to on-boarding directors, social workers and assists with managing funds for the organisation from Trusts and the KFC Add Hope campaign. She previously worked at GBTSA as a Youth Development manager, having started as a social worker in various Children’s homes. She has been involved in different projects within the sector including: setting up an adoption and child protection agency under the auspices of Jhb Parent and Child Counselling Centre, which she later became the chairperson for the organisation for 15 years. She has also worked as a professional consultant for the Coalition of Anglican Children’s Homes (COACH) in social work as well as Child and Youth care programmes. She was a co-founder of the Section 21 organisation together with the Minister of Social Development in 2001, for community projects in the Free State and Eastern Cape, which targeted communities affected by poverty and HIV/AIDS with intentions to find solutions to care for their children. She holds a BSc degree from University of Pretoria, majoring in Social Work, Sociology and Psychology, Honours in Social work, Advanced Diploma in Business Administration and Masters in Child and Youth Care.

Brother Marco has worked in Swaziland and other parts of the African continent as a teacher in Religious Education and field researcher and data collection for children at risk and orphans, as well as co-ordinator for the Sport for Good Youth Programme Youth Care in collaboration with Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. He has also worked in monitoring and evaluation for food distribution programme in Catholic Rural Schools for USAID Southern Africa. He has worked as a Vice Director; working with youth on streets and vocational skills training for the orphans and children at risk. He serves a Salesian Brother of Don Bosco. He holds in Diploma in Philosophy, UNISA Certificate in HIV/AIDS Counselling, certificate in Mediation Skills, Diploma in Spirituality, Youth Ministry and Youth Education Studies, all from Tangaza University in Kenya. His educational background also includes studies in Social Welfare Science and Child Care, Sociology, Communication Science from UNISA and holds a BA Degree in Management and Leadership from DePaul University in Chicago.

Shimi Donald Kau has a long history of serving young children lacking home support. A scholarship from the Gifted Child Programme instilled in him the values of mentorship and stewardship of young children lacking basic home-care. Donald previously worked as a Communications Officer in Transnet’s Corporate Social Investment division and was an Executive Director at Meropa Communications. He holds a national diploma in Public Relations Management from the University of Johannesburg.

Brad is a Managing Director at The Inside Edge. His significant involvement and experience with Girls and Boys Town SA includes sourcing funding and overseeing the implementation of the vegetable garden at the Tongaat campus. He has secured ongoing funding that paid for the tutoring program, which ran successfully for a number of years at all three KZN campuses for GBTSA. He has served as an Advisory Board member in the Faculty of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure at the Durban University of Technology (DUT). He currently serves on the Board of SITE (Society of Incentive Travel Excellence) Africa, responsible for Southern Africa. He holds National Diploma in Hotel Management from Durban University of Technology.

Brother Michael is an experienced educationist who has a long history of serving various schools and institutions across Southern Africa. He is a member of the boards at REAP; Christian Brothers Association; Catholic Education Trust; Northern Free State Institute for Community Development and the newly established Catholic Board of Education in South Africa. He is also Province Leader for the Congregation of Christian Brothers. He is qualified as a teacher in Melbourne, Australia. He furthered his tertiary studies at La Trobe University and University of South Africa.

David Peter Daniels is currently the chairperson of Girls & Boys Town SA Board, also a board member for more than 30 years. Having held several terms as a Chairperson, David Daniels formed an integral part of the growth, development and transformation journey of Girls & Boys Town SA. Some of his key functions include ensuring the overall success of GBTSA; extension of service offerings; commencement of admission of girls; establishment of new projects at Learner Support Centres in Macassar (Western Cape) and Kagiso (Gauteng) and introducing measures to promote financial sustainability. His qualifications include a Masters Degree in City Planning (University of Cape Town); Masters Degree in Urban and Regional Planning (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA) and BA degree from the University of the Western Cape.

David Jule Bergman was Senior Manager Investments for General Mining Union Corporation and Managing Director of Genbel Investments Limited, its JSE listed investment arm and Group Financial Director for the Alexander Financial Services Group, and have held numerous board appointments of listed and non-listed companies of which currently he is a non-executive director of HDI Global, Land Bank Insurance and Land Bank Life insurance companies, of which companies he chairs the Audit and Risk Committees and is a Member of the Actuarial and Investment Committee. He is a Chartered Accountant (Witwatersrand University) as well as a Chartered Management Accountant and holds a Higher Diploma in Tax Law (Witwatersrand University).

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