Helena Duk

Just Do It (JDI) Trust

Originally from Johannesburg, Helena finished her schooling and studied towards a BSc degree at the University of Pretoria. In 1993 she came to Cape Town for a couple of years, and then spent two years abroad, working and travelling. Helena returned to Cape Town in 1998 where she worked for BoE Asset Management. In 2001 she studied part time through UCT Graduate School of Business, and realised the value of education. It's during this time that she started thinking about charity work, and through her husband Graham, joined the JDI Foundation Trust, where she came into contact with SAEP. It was love at first sight, and Helena soon realised that this world class NPO is just what Cape Town and South Africa needed. As she believes that education is the best gift anyone can have, she was sold from day one, and has continued to support, help and work with SAEP where she can. Helena is married to Graham Duk, has given up her corporate life and is a full-time mother with three children, aged 6, 5 and 3; she currently serves as the Chairperson of SAEP in a voluntary capacity. Helena has raised money through her connections with the JDI Foundation Trust and other networks.

Ros Emanual

Secretary

Ros is a retired English teacher who was one of the original tutors in SAEP's Bridging Year Programme. Affectionately known as "Mama Ros," she inspirted and motivated many interns to improve all their English language skills. She has been an active and productive member of the Management Committee and a generous donor for more than five years.

Norton Tennille

Treasurer

Norton Tennille is the founder of SAEP and lives in Cape Town, South Africa. A former Rhodes Scholar, he practiced environmental and federal regulatory law in Washington, DC for 25 years before moving to Cape Town to establish SAEP in 1994. He is a native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina and holds degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Harvard University, Oxford University, and Harvard Law School. He was a founding Director of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham and served on the General Alumni Board of UNC: Chapel Hill. During his career as an environmental lawyer he received numerous awards from environmental organizations and headed the Balliol College Alumni Association in the United States.

Avuyile Koli

Past ADT Teach Senior Tutor

Avuyile Koli matriculated at Sinethemba High School in 2001 and joined SAEP as a Bridging Year Intern in 2003. Upon completion of his internship at SAEP at the end of 2003, Avuyile got a Learnership at CS holdings. He was attached at the City of Cape Town for the practical component of his training in 2005. After completing his learnership, he was employed as junior IT Technician at the City of Cape Town's smart city project. Avuyile was promoted to be a Technician, and later became a Junior IT Project Manager as well as an IT helpdesk Supervisor, responsible for more than 100 Sites and with more that 80 000 registered users.

In 2009, he left his managerial position at the Smart City Project to join SAEP's ADT teach project which was an SAEP and ADT /CSI initiative that teaches township school learners basic computer skills. Later, he got a permanent appointment with ADT to run the ADT teach project as the Senior IT trainer.

Avuyile has since been promoted to a higher position at ADT.

Sindiswa (Nobuntu) Tebeka

Principal of Zamukhanyo Educare, Chair of Safety Unity Creche Forum

Sindiswa Tebeka was born and raised in the Eastern Cape. After marrying, she changed her name to Nobuntu Mkhencele in 1982. In 1989, Nobuntu relocated to Cape Town. On her arrival, she started working on a project knitting jerseys for sale and at the same time working as a domestic worker in Mitchell's Plain. In 1994, she decided, after having been taking care of 6 children from the neighbourhood, to open her own crèche, which she called Zamukhanyo Educare Centre. Zamukhanyo has since grown from a two-roomed shack to a new building with five rooms serving around one hundred local children, thanks in part to the assistance of SAEP. Nobuntu was the chairperson of the Safety Unity Crèche Forum, a forum which is made up of 10 crèches working with SAEP in Philippi. Nobuntu says, "I was born to be a leader and a role model, and I will die caring and building a better future for disadvantaged children."