Meet our team

Ukuthasa is a small charity and relies on the support of our volunteers and a small team. We have a volunteer Board of Trustees that bring a wealth of experience from a variety of sectors to ensure that all checks and balances are in place for the charity to run efficiently and ethically. The charity employees a small staff to ensure that all administrative areas are taken care of and our team of project workers in South Africa act as local liaison between the projects and the UK. They are on the ground to communicate, monitor and support our projects.

The Board of Trustees

The people behind the charity

© Ukuthasa 2017 | Charity Registration Number: 1055539
Chris Wilks, Chairman of the trustees: Chris is an optometrist working in private practice and for the College of Optometrists. His particular interest is the visual effects on learning difficulties.
Karen Barnes, trustee: Karen has been a journalist for more than 20 years. She has worked for EMAP and IPC Media and as Associate Editor and Head of the Good Housekeeping Institute for the National Magazine Company. She is now Editor of delicious. magazine.
Trevor Blackmur, trustee and treasurer: Trevor has established TRB Tax and Payroll Services providing taxation and payroll services to individuals, sole traders and small businesses. He is a member of The Association of Taxation Technicians and sits on their Technical Committee.
Gary Welsh,trustee: Gary Welsh worked for a number of years as a Social Worker in London, UK. He is currently part of the leadership team at Helderberg Christian Church in Somerset West, South Africa and heads up their work into the townships. Co-founder of Ukuthasa and an employee, Gary oversaw the Fatyela Square housing project and helped manage the HIV Peer Education Project.
Tracey Kerly, trustee:
Nikki Glass, trustee: Nikki has been involved with Ukuthasa for many years having first visited the projects nearly 20 years ago. At one stage she volunteered in the school and also Choices. Previously she worked in pregnancy crisis counselling in the UK, after a career in education and raising a family.

The Employees

Laia Martinez Mega, Fundraiser and Administrator: Laia was born in Barcelona, Spain, but moved to the UK in 2004. She has a Degree in Humanities and a postgraduate diploma in Management and Administration for NGOs and has been involved with various not-for- profit organisations since then.
Nicky WelshProject Worker, SA:  Nicky Welsh worked in local government and housing association housing management in the UK for over 20 years. In 1995 she moved with her husband Gary to the Western Cape of South Africa, where they both hoped to become involved in township projects. She has worked on a number of projects undertaken by Ukuthasa and currently heads up the charity’s HIV/AIDs training programme. Aggie MacKenzie Aggie, who shot to fame in 2003 in the Channel 4 series “How Clean Is Your House?”, was born in Aviemore, Scotland. She was taught the art of cleaning by her mother, who deployed a dizzying array of remedies for spots and stains!  Aggie discovered an aptitude for languages while she was at school and studied for a bilingual secretarial qualification in Aberdeen before moving to London to work at the Foreign Office. Says Aggie: ‘On my first day they told me I’d been security-screened and would actually be working for MI6!’ She hadn’t envisaged a career as Miss Moneypenny and after two years of high-level secrets crossing her desk she left to join the press office of the National Union of Students. From there Aggie’s career moved on to journalism and she worked on a string of national titles before becoming associate editor at Good Housekeeping magazine, in charge of the Good Housekeeping Institute. As well as devising and triple-testing hundreds of recipes every year, the institute tests all the latest consumer appliances and investigates new cleaning products and gadgets, so it seemed a natural progression when, in August 2002, Aggie was asked if she’d like to be considered for a TV series. At the screen test she was introduced to Kim ­ and the rest is history. They are currently filming their third series in the UK, but it doesn’t stop there… The appeal of the dynamic cleaning team has now spread to America, too, where How Clean Is Your House? is airing on the Lifetime Channel. Guest appearances have included the Oprah show www.aggiemackenzie.co.uk

The Patron

Meet our team

Ukuthasa is a small charity and relies on the support of our volunteers and a small team. We have a volunteer Board of Trustees that bring a wealth of experience from a variety of sectors to ensure that all checks and balances are in place for the charity to run efficiently and ethically. The charity employees a small staff to ensure that all administrative areas are taken care of and our team of project workers in South Africa act as local liaison between the projects and the UK. They are on the ground to communicate, monitor and support our projects.

The Board of Trustees

Chris Wilks, Chairman of the trustees: Chris is an optometrist working in private practice and for the College of Optometrists. His particular interest is the visual effects on learning difficulties.

The people behind the charity

© Ukuthasa 2007 | Charity Registration Number: 1055539
ukuthasa Encouraging local communities in Africa
Trevor Blackmur, trustee and treasurer: Trevor has established TRB Tax and Payroll Services providing taxation and payroll services to individuals, sole traders and small businesses. He is a member of The Association of Taxation Technicians and sits on their Technical Committee.
Karen Barnes, trustee: Karen has been a journalist for more than 20 years. She has worked for EMAP and IPC Media and as Associate Editor and Head of the Good Housekeeping Institute for the National Magazine Company. She is now Editor of delicious. magazine.
Gary Welsh,trustee: Gary Welsh worked for a number of years as a Social Worker in London, UK. He is currently part of the leadership team at Helderberg Christian Church in Somerset West, South Africa and heads up their work into the townships. Co-founder of Ukuthasa and an employee, Gary oversaw the Fatyela Square housing project and helped manage the HIV Peer Education Project.
Tracey Kerly, trustee:
Nikki Glass, trustee: Nikki has been involved with Ukuthasa for many years having first visited the projects nearly 20 years ago. At one stage she volunteered in the school and also Choices. Previously she worked in pregnancy crisis counselling in the UK, after a career in education and raising a family.

The Employees

Nicky WelshProject Worker, SA:  Nicky Welsh worked in local government and housing association housing management in the UK for over 20 years. In 1995 she moved with her husband Gary to the Western Cape of South Africa, where they both hoped to become involved in township projects. She has worked on a number of projects undertaken by Ukuthasa and currently heads up the charity’s HIV/AIDs training programme.
Laia Martinez Mega, Fundraiser and Administrator: Laia was born in Barcelona, Spain, but moved to the UK in 2004. She has a Degree in Humanities and a postgraduate diploma in Management and Administration for NGOs and has been involved with various not-for-profit organisations since then.

The Patron

Aggie MacKenzie Aggie, who shot to fame in 2003 in the Channel 4 series “How Clean Is Your House?”, was born in Aviemore, Scotland. She was taught the art of cleaning by her mother, who deployed a dizzying array of remedies for spots and stains!  Aggie discovered an aptitude for languages while she was at school and studied for a bilingual secretarial qualification in Aberdeen before moving to London to work at the Foreign Office. Says Aggie: ‘On my first day they told me I’d been security-screened and would actually be working for MI6!’ She hadn’t envisaged a career as Miss Moneypenny and after two years of high-level secrets crossing her desk she left to join the press office of the National Union of Students. From there Aggie’s career moved on to journalism and she worked on a string of national titles before becoming associate editor at Good Housekeeping magazine, in charge of the Good Housekeeping Institute. As well as devising and triple-testing hundreds of recipes every year, the institute tests all the latest consumer appliances and investigates new cleaning products and gadgets, so it seemed a natural progression when, in August 2002, Aggie was asked if she’d like to be considered for a TV series. At the screen test she was introduced to Kim ­ and the rest is history. They are currently filming their third series in the UK, but it doesn’t stop there… The appeal of the dynamic cleaning team has now spread to America, too, where How Clean Is Your House? is airing on the Lifetime Channel. Guest appearances have included the Oprah show www.aggiemackenzie.co.uk
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