Jane Keen

Director, Early Childhood Development

Jane Keen is Director of the South African Education and Environment Project. She is a graduate of the University of Cape Town and a social worker with 30 years experience working with street children, farm workers' children, and the victims of domestic violence. She helped establish and run the first shelters for street children in Cape Town while working at Child Welfare Society, including The Homestead, Ons Plek, Margaret's House, Patrick's House and others. She then co-founded the NICRO Women's Support Centre in downtown Cape Town, and managed the domestic violence programme for 7 years. She has served on the Management Committee of St. Anne's Homes for a number of years, and provides supervision to a number of social workers and lay counsellors through Catholic Welfare and Development and other organisations.

Send Jane an email -- Jane@SAEP.org

Elise Farley

Project Coordinator, Early Childhood Development Programme

Elise was born in Zimbabwe but has grown up mostly in South Africa. She completed her undergraduate degree in Environmental Science and Politics followed by an Honours degree in Political Science at Rhodes University in South Africa. Afterwards Elise spent a year teaching in Asia before going to the UK in 2007. She was one of the founding members of Vimba which is a UK based charity that raises funds and implements projects in Zimbabwe. She left the UK at the end of 2008 and went to Nigeria to volunteer at an orphanage. Elise moved back home to Cape Town to volunteer with the Adonis Musati Project. After that she became the Projects Officer at REACH in 2009. In early 2010, she took a break from REACH and went to the UAE and Oman to film a documentary on marine exploitation, and then spent a month adventuring around Ethiopia. When Elise went back to Cape Town she spent another year at REACH and joined the SAEP family in late March 2011. Elise enjoys reading, hiking, doing puzzles, baking and hugging trees!

Send Elise an email -- elise@saep.org

Kathrin Herms

Volunteer

Kathrin completed her graduation in 2006 (general qualification for university entrance). After that she has made a training as a wholsesale and foreign trade clerk, which she finished in 2008. Then she started to work as an e-commerce coordinator till January 2011.
Now she decided to leave Germany for one year and to work as a volunteer at SAEP.
One of her tasks will be to give computer trainings for the principles in the crèches and for the interns of the bridging year.

Blair Saunders

Volunteer

Blair Saunders is from McLean, Virginia and graduated in May of 2011 from the College of William and Mary with a BA in History with Honors. She has been volunteering at SAEP since September of 2011, working in both the Early Childhood Development and Media Departments. Blair enjoys meeting new people, traveling (she misses Florence where she spent a semester abroad, especially the pizza!), cooking, listening to live music and dancing (poorly).

In June of 2012 she will enroll at the University of Virginia, where she hopes to complete their Post Baccalaureate Pre Medical Program and be one step closer to medical school and becoming a Doctor!