Engender’s Management Committee (Board of Directors) is incredibly diverse, with members from across South African society sectors, and one leading organisational development and human resources expert based in the United States. Members’ expertise include research; human rights and gender activisms; law; organisational development, management and human resources; as well as programme management.

• Bernedette Muthien - Director
• Waheeda Amien
• Shelley Barry
• Nneheleng Koali
• Rashid Lombard
• Amanda Nodada
• Mandisa Zitha

Bernedette is an independent scholar-activist, engaged in strategic interventions (including research and facilitation) in the areas of human rights, conflict resolution, gender and gender-based violence, as well sexualities and HIV/AIDS. She is committed to transformation, equity (with justice), and non-violence.

She has published creative writing and academic work widely, written for diverse audiences, and believes in accessible research and writing.

At the end of 2003 Bernedette co-founded a non-profit organisation, Engender, to formalise the work she had engaged in since leaving the African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town, at the end of 2001. Engender provides research & capacity building for communities of people on genders & sexualities, human rights, justice & peace.

Her community activism is integrally related to her work with international organisations, and her research necessarily reflects the values of equity, social change and justice. Bernedette has published both creative writing and academic work in South Africa and abroad. She has written for diverse audiences and is committed to accessible research and writing.

AFFILIATIONS include: Executive Council of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) 2000-2006, and still serves as co-convenor of its Global Political Economy Commission. Member of Amanitare, the African network of gender NGOs. Member of the International Advisory Board of the international journal, Human Security Studies, as well as the International Resource Network on Sexualities, administered by CUNY. Regional Editor (Africa & Asia) of the international journal, Queries.

Bernedette is originally from a large working class black family of mixed origins. Her absolute commitment to human rights and social and economic justice is rooted in both her personal background, as well as her anti-apartheid activism. She honed her skills in community organising with grassroots movements during the eighties. Due to intense student activism her teenage years were marked by expulsions from schools and university, detentions and imprisonment.

Bernedette’s professional life has echoed the belief that the personal is political, and the global local, and hence her work has consistently centred on the issues of gender, human rights, and peace.

 

Waheeda Amien holds a Law degree (BA LLB) from the University of Cape Town, and a Master of Law degree (LLM) in Constitutional Litigation from the University of the Western Cape. She is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at the Faculty of Law, University of Gent, Belgium. Her thesis focuses on Muslim women's complex rights to equality and is entitled "The conflict between the right to freedom of religion and Muslim's women's right to equality - multicultural accommodation of Muslim Personal Law and/or Shari'a in constitutional jurisdictions". She has worked at the Public Defender's Office (Legal Aid Board), Parliament, two South African universities, and one foreign university. Her working experience includes research on women's and children's rights, as well as the intersectionality of law, race, gender, and other diversity issues; equality and diversity training for magistrates; lecturing in gender law; and having practised as a public interest and human rights lawyer. She has been a board member of a number of progressive organisations in South Africa, and has published especially in the areas of gender and human rights law. Some of her work can be accessed online at:

http://www.law.wits.ac.za/salc/salc.html

http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/lrgru/ocpapndx.htm

http://www.csls.org.za

Shelley holds a Master of Fine Arts in Film degree from Temple University in the USA. Her films have screened at major festivals and events around the world and been acquired
by television stations in South Africa and the USA. Awards include an Audre Lorde award for media and Best film awards at many international festivals. Her film “Inclinations” was
acquired by MTV and made the top ten best click list on their online site.

Born and raised in the Eastern Cape, Shelley completed graduate studies in English and Drama at the Universities of Cape Town and the Western Cape. She became a disability rights activist after a shooting in the Cape taxi wars of 1996 that resulted in her
being a wheelchair user. She has held positions as Media Manager in the Office on the
Status of Disabled Persons in the Presidency and as the National Parliamentary Policy
Coordinator for Disabled People South Africa. Shelley studied video with filmmaker Mira
Nair and worked in television as the Program Compliance Advisor for South Africa’s first
independent TV station, e.tv. She also worked with the BBC’s Disability Production Unit
in London. Shelley has held positions as Chief Examiner of the South African Film and
Publications Board and also served on the boards of Mediaworks, and Broadcasting
Foundation for Africa. She is associated with Gun Free South Africa and addressed the
UN in 2006 on gun violence during the UN review on small arms.

She was Carnegie scholar in residence at the University of the Witwatersrand where she
made new films and taught experimental cinema and short fiction production. Shelley
served as Programme Manager at Cape Town TV (CTV) - a community television station
advocating human rights and social justice. Shelley is currently the founder and director
of twospinningwheels productions – a production company that explores new languages
in cinema and gives marginalised voices access to filmmaking. Shelley's poetry has been
published widely.

Nneheleng Koali hails from Matatiele, a rural village bordering Lesotho. Her passion for conservation and the environment led to her studying Nature Conservation at the former Port Elizabeth Technikon and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

She is currently a BSc Honours candidate at the Department of Environmental Sciences of the University of South Africa. She has worked for the municipality, provincial and national conservation agencies.

Her community contributions include opening a cycling club branch of the Life Cycling Academy in Makhaza, Khayelitsha. She served as a Club Manager, recruiting from the streets boys and girls of ages 13 to 18 years to participate in the development cycling programme to become cyclists.

She has worked as a Research Assistant in the Conservation Biology Unit of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) at the Kirstenbosch Research Centre in Cape Town. In 2006 she joined the Drakenstein Municipality in Paarl, where she managed Paarl Mountain Nature Reserve and the conservation areas within the municipal area. Apart from managing the nature reserve, she also engaged with local schools in environmental education and awareness in Paarl.

In 2008, she worked as a Biodiversity Stewardship Officer for the South African National Park, at the Garden Route National Park in Knysna, where she promoted conservation worthy land of private farms that borders the national park. Employed by the Western Cape Nature Conservation Board, Nneheleng currently holds a position in Ecology, within the Regional Ecological Support Team of the Western Cape. Her responsibilities include co-ordinating the implementation of the ecological programmes, promoting quality biodiversity data collection from nature reserves and facilitating the Protected Area Management planning in the Cape Metropolitan Area.

Rashid Lombard is an internationally renowned photographer and jazz fundi, and CEO of ESPAfrika, the Cape-based company responsible for the largest jazz multi-event in the southern hemisphere, the North Sea Jazz Festival. Please visit the following websites on http://www.espafrika.com for more info on espAFRIKA or http://www.capetownjazzfest.com for the latest on the Cape Town Jazz Festival (former North Sea Festival, Cape Town).

Amanda Nodada is a poet, writer, performer and a radio personality who recently published her IsiXhosa poetry anthology called Isililo. Amanda studied Performing Arts at Community Arts Project, followed by a Bachelors degree in Languages and Communications from the University of the Western Cape.

Amanda has worked for various local organisations like Radio Zibonele and Cape Community TV as a volunteer news reader. Amanda performed at the 2010 Cape Town Book Fair, the opening of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament (2009) and the Women's Project hosted by the National Parliament (2008).

Mandisa Zitha was born in the small North West town of Mafikeng during the period of the 1976 June 16th uprisings. She developed her passion for the arts while attending a liberal high school, where she revelled in storytelling in all forms. A short stint in the concert promotion and music industry honed her production skills and led her to the film industry and the position of administrator of the Independent Producers' Organisation. As the facilitator for Women of the Sun, Mandisa resurrected the organisation through a membership drive, weekly newsletters, screenings and the African Women's Festival. At that time, the organisation initiated a short film series for emerging women filmmakers. Mandisa developed strong production skills as a production manager in Total Eclipse's short film series commissioned for SABC3.

Feeling the need to evolve and attain a more holistic approach to film, Mandisa decided to pursue a degree in Film and Media at the University of Cape Town, majoring in scriptwriting and documentaries. She received the class medal for her Senior Project based on a radio script. Mandisa's quiet passion and determined focus is evident in the success of the projects she undertakes. She brings both production experience and academic skills to the Encounters festival, and to Engender's Management Committee.