Recent appointments at VOSESA

Salah Elzein Mohamed and Joy Oba have joined Volunteer and Service Enquiry Southern Africa (VOSESA) as part-time staff to assist Helene Perold, Executive Director of VOSESA, in running the organisation. Salah Mohamed has been appointed as VOSESA Co-ordinator while Joy Oba serves as the Information Network Node Co-ordinator.

Salah holds a master’s degree in Development Planning and is currently pursuing a PhD in Urban Development at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Salah has more than ten years of experience in youth leadership, and has been involved in civil society organisations and media production in the Sudan. He has presented papers at local, regional and international youth conferences focusing mainly on the roles of young people in community development and the promotion of the culture of peace and conflict resolution. Recently, Salah undertook research projects on urban and peri-urban informal settlements and co-authored a book entitled Planning for Crime Prevention in Khartoum.

Joy holds a master’s degree in Public Health as well as an MSc (Med) in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the School of Public Health at the university of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She is currently a student of the new graduate-entry medical programme of the University’s Medical School. Previously, Joy was the editor of the quarterly newsletter for the Sexually Transmitted Infections Reference Centre, and a medical microbiologist for Shell Petroleum Development Company (Delta State, Nigeria). Joy is involved in research and is responsible for the development of a Southern African information networking node for VOSESA.

VOSESA was set up to support the development of knowledge about service and volunteering in Southern Africa in order to strengthen civic service as a tool for democracy, development and transformation. It aims to achieve its vision by documenting good practice and contributing to the emerging knowledge base about service and volunteering in Southern Africa. It stimulates appropriate research in partnership with other organisations in the Southern African region, facilitating the publication of research findings and analysis through vehicles such as Service Enquiry (www.service-enquiry.org.za) and VOSESA Focus (www.vosesa.org.za).