Staff

Helene Perold is the founder and executive director of VOSESA. Helene has worked in education, media and development for the past 35 years. An educationist, evaluator, facilitator and researcher, she has been involved in a wide range of fields, including educational media, youth development and community service. Most of this work has been done in South Africa with public, non-governmental and private organisations. In addition, Helene has undertaken assignments in Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Germany, India, Ireland, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, the USA and Zimbabwe. She serves as managing editor of Service Enquiry, a series that focuses on service and volunteering policy and programmes, with the aim of contributing to the impact of service on democracy, citizenship and socio-economic development.

Email: helene.perold@vosesa.org.za

Karena Cronin is the deputy director of VOSESA. She came to South Africa in 2007 through the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Programme and was placed at CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation. There she researched and co-authored a publication on volunteering and social activism, and advised the organisation on how to develop its work on volunteerism issues. Prior to this, she was a Council of Women World Leaders Fellow at the Club of Madrid in Spain and the Associate Director of the Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She holds a Master of International Affairs in Economic and Political Development from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Political Science from Union College (cum laude). She believes in the power of volunteering for personal as well as social transformation.

Email: Karena.cronin@vosesa.org.za

Benter Okello is the operations and projects manager of VOSESA. She provides financial management, project management, research and strategic support to VOSESA. Benter holds a master’s degree in public and development management from the University of the Witwatersrand. She previously worked as the business manager at Helene Perold and Associates, an education programme assistant at the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), a bookkeeper at the Heinrich Böll Foundation, and managed a book publishing project on ICT for development, funded by OSISA. She has also worked part-time as an events organiser for the South African Council of Churches and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Email: benter.okello@vosesa.org.za

1. VOSESA
2. VOSESA