No trustee holds any property on behalf of the charity and all work entirely pro bono. Ian Irvin (chairman) Ian Irvin is a civil engineer by training who moved into general management, working at senior level in major international corporates before buying and building up his own multimillion turnover, international manufacturing business. He sold this in 1989 and has subsequently worked in strategy and management consulting at board level in major international PLCs. At the same time Ian has acted as a trustee and committee member/chairman of many charities and served for a term as a county councillor, heading the education committee. He became a trustee of Amasango in 2012 and manages to visit the school most years. He was born in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and also has a property in Cape Town where he spends at least three months every year, so has a real understanding of the local South African scene. Martin Coombs (hon secretary) Martin worked in the transport industry for several years, in Britain and South Africa, before making his later career as a secondary school teacher of geography and maths. After many years as a head of department, boarding housemaster, and in senior management, largely in boarding schools in Scotland and East Anglia, he spent a ‘mature gap year’ in 2011–12 as a volunteer at the Amasango Career School. Now ‘semi-retired’ he is heavily involved in community activities up in Cumbria, but at intervals has spent two further school terms volunteering in Makhanda (Grahamstown). Hannah Peters Hannah works as a project accountant for an engineering company where she is studying to become a chartered accountant. She first heard about Amasango during Linda Ngamlana’s visit in 2016, and has since visited the school twice for eight weeks in total. She plans to visit every 18 months or so to keep up to date with the school. Prior to becoming an accountant, Hannah worked as a tutor in Maths and English for children aged 4–16 for four and a half years which is where her passion for children’s education stems from. Alison Evans Alison is a graduate of the Royal College of Music. She has spent her career teaching music in both the public and private sectors, from pre-school children up to those aged 85 +! More recently, Alison has had an active interest in supporting Amasango Career School in South Africa. She has made several visits to the school. Each month in the UK she tries to be actively involved in various fund-raising activities – ‘Every One A Winner’ 50p Jam-Jam stall is hugely successful at bazaars etc, a coastal walk from Aldeburgh to Southwold and ‘the odd job’ here and there – each sum adds up and this all makes a vital difference to the children at Amasango Career School. In 2018 she was granted a richly deserved British Empire Medal in the New Year’s honours list for service to the community. Bob Hampton(hon treasurer) Bob was born and grew up in Hertfordshire. Although he read engineering at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he worked most of his life in computing, including nearly ten years with Tear Fund. After retirement he worked for two years as project manager in the Dominican Republic for a small UK/US charity providing schools and clinics and the poorest areas of the country. This was a project with many similarities to Amasango. He is married to Alison, a parish priest in Warwickshire. They have four grown up children and six grandchildren. Now fully retired he supports Alison in her parish work and does voluntary work for charities. Over the years he has served churches and charities in many roles often using his IT and numeracy skills. Revd Kate Mier Kate is Vicar of the Arden Marches churches. Formerly an analytical chemist in the pharmaceutical industry, she was ordained in 1996. She volunteered at Amasango School for two months during a sabbatical in 2008 because her churches wanted to form real personal links with a project in another country. She has visited the school nearly every year since to maintain the relationships. Mark Newton Mark is currently a software engineer with a telecommunications company. In addition to his work interests he enjoys staying up to date with the latest technological developments and their applications in everyday life. Mark studied at Rhodes University in Grahamstown where the school is based and has had personal contact with the school. He became a trustee in 2007 after being invited to attend the AGM. Mark assists the charity with various IT matters. Charl Oosthuizen Charl grew up in Makhanda (Grahamstown) and was educated at PJ Olivier, St Andrew's Prep and Kingswood College. After coming to England he graduated from Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, in philosophy, and undertook postgraduate work at Sussex and then at Bristol. Charl worked at both Arthur Andersen and at Western Power Distribution where he was finance director until his retirement in 2018. Rebecca Pennells Rebecca is a secondary school art teacher in London, who first volunteered at Amasango Career School in 2002. She has been a trustee for over 10 years and writes the newsletter. She has visited the school several times since then, each time seeing the improvements that the school and Friends of Amasango have brought. In addition to this, in 2004 Rebecca spent a year volunteering in Zambia working with severely marginalised children and young people using accelerated and vocational education strategies. Brian Wakeham Brian was born in London, UK, and educated and brought up in South Africa. His senior school days were at St Andrew’s College in Makhanda (Grahamstown). He returned to the UK in the early 1970s. He is involved in other organisations with Grahamstown links and visits Grahamstown fairly regularly. In professional life he was a banker (now retired), and as a trustee he co-ordinates the disclosure and safeguarding applications for volunteers and keeps in regular contact with the school in Makhanda (Grahamstown).
