Most NGOs in South Africa are all too familiar with the inevitable staff turnover that seems a feature of the sector and SAHA has been no exception in 2009.
Piers Pigou, director at SAHA since 2006, officially left SAHA in June 2009 to join the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) as a Senior Associate. Fortunately for us, Piers continues to lend his considerable expertise and energy to SAHA in an advisory capacity.
Charlotte Young, our professional volunteer from Australian Volunteers International (AVI), will be leaving SAHA and South Africa at the end of September after having spent two very productive years running SAHA's Freedom of Information Programme's Capacity Building Pilot Project. Charlotte has brought incredible enthusiasm and commitment to her work, and she will be sorely missed by her colleagues both at SAHA and the organisations that participated in this pilot project, Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre (TLAC) and Khulumani Support Group. A new AVI professional volunteer will be joining the SAHA team in early 2010 to build on Charlotte's advocacy and training work in the access to information field.
Fritz Schoon, SAHA's Freedom of Information Programme Coordinator since July 2008, will also be leaving SAHA shortly to return to full-time study. Gabriella Razzano has joined SAHA as the FOIP Support Officer and will be taking over some of Fritz's responsibilities, including the management of SAHA's access to information requests. Michal Singer has also joined SAHA this month on the Struggles for Justice Programme as the SFJ Projects Officer - she will be supporting the development and management of SAHA's archival outreach, educational and memory projects.
As of 1 October 2009, the staff structure at SAHA will be as follows:
Catherine Kennedy (Acting Director)
Olga Pickover (SAHA Office Administrator)
Debora Matthews (SFJ Archival Supervisor)
Elizabeth Marima (SFJ Archival Assistant)
Esmeralda Dirks (SFJ Archival Assistant)
Michal Singer (SFJ Projects Officer)
Gabriella Razzano (FOIP Support Officer)
In conjunction with the launch of our new website, all current staff at SAHA now have new email addresses, following the format firstname@saha.org.za - please do update your contacts accordingly.
For details on how to get in touch with any of the SAHA team, please visit the SAHA staff page on our website.
