Names & Faces
Founding Fathers
The core team of the academic faculty of C4L are real development practitioners. The co-founders both began their careers as NGO staff workers, and later moved on to contract work as trainers and evaluators.
Chuck Stephens - Born in the then Belgian Congo, now DRC, to Canadian missionaries, schooled in Uganda, and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Graduated from Trent University (Peterborough, Ontario). Attended Regent College (Vancouver, BC) in Christian Studies. Served as a rural development worker first in Angola for 3 years with a national church organization, then in Mozambique for 3 years with World Vision in food aid, and finally in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada for 3 years as Operations Manager of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. Returned to Africa in 1991 to launch an NGO management consultancy, focusing on managerial capacity building for non-profit groups.
Alfredo Mazive - Mozambican, who oversees operations at the Academia Wumunhu campus in Matola, capital of Maputo province. A leading light when it comes to training NGOs in Mozambique. Not only is the campus used for this purpose, but Alfredo travels far and wide to deliver capacity building services. His speciality is Organization Development (OD), and he is an active member of IODA, the International OD Association. He also sits on an international advisory board for Capacity Development of civil society, striving for coherence in this field.
Board of Directors
C4L is directed by a voluntary board of seven women and men meeting regularly, at a minimum three times a year, to provide corporate governance.
The officers are elected by the Board for bi-annual terms.
In 2013 they are:
- Chair - Alfredo Mazive
- Secretary - Nolwazi Lekhuleni
- Treasurer - Chuck Stephens
The other members are Sidney Bliss, Nigel Lowe, Lingiwe Mkhwanazi and Mark Armstrong.
C4L plans to coopt more youth members as part of its emerging Succession Plan.
TEAM STRUCTURE
OD mentoring
The Organization Development team runs just two projects... End User Computing is aimed at NGOs and SMMEs. This anchors C4L's accreditation - with the MICT SETA. Then there is C4L's Online Menoring project - MENTOR.ORG.ZA
Active Listening
The old Opportunities for Youth team is reinventing itself in 2013. From C4L's roots in Grief Couseling for OVC a new project is emerging. This is to train the laity in "active listening" - a style of couseling that can be applied to a wide scope of social services. C4L is forming a Joint Venture with two other entities to take its counseling training to a new level.
Green Livelihoods
The Livelihood Support Unit is led by Debo Adekunle. He leads an i-house team of entrepreneurship trainers composed of Nakiwe Mathebula, Stanley mathebula and Donald Malumane. Technical trainers for C4L incluse Nigel Lowe (a water engineer) and Thami Maluka (plumbing and solar) - but the LSU has formed a Joint Venture with Ehlanzeni's FET College to broaden the scope of trainers available to support the emergence of "Diversified Green Coops" at community level.
Senior Management Team
In 2013, in the light of a recent study using the Appreciative Inquiry methodology, the SMT will shrink as C4L's streamlines itself. the same three-department structure is envisaged but on a smaller scale. This is because with the FET taking on much of the training provider role, C4L's focus shifts to programming the practicums through incubation of Diversified Green Coops at community level.
Executive Director - Chuck Stephens
Green Livelihoods - Debo Adekunle
Active Listening - Stanley Mathebula
Online Mentoring - Ben Christo
HELP WANTED in 2013
Volunteers and or missionaries are welcome to help C4L through this transition. Gaps include Finance, Fundraising, Communications and I.T.
Faculty & Staff
Some SMT members double as programme staff - training or field work.
In some cases, project budgets allow C4L to hire trainers, but usually this is out-sourced on an as-needed basis. This depends of volumes. Some key unmentioned trainers at C4L are:
- Debo Adekunle - organizational excellence and entrepreneurship
- Stanley Mathebula, Nakiwe Mathebula and Donald Malumane - MicroMBA
- Thami Maluka - basic plumbing & solar
- Nigel Lowe - water supply
- Henry Riba - End User Computing
Operations Team
Office functions include a Finance Officer, Erica Chiculecule.
C4L has welcomed international volunteers in the past from Mennonite Central Committee and German Development Service.
Also, international volunteers have come on their own for up to 3 months each, at different times.