About GardenAfrica

GardenAfrica Team

GardenAfrica Volunteers

We would like to thank the following volunteers for their tremendous help and support.

Valerie Ferguson - Fund raising and events

As Regional Coordinator, Valerie is responsible for organising weekend events with garden centres. She has spent many years in PR, as an editor in a publishing company, and organising reader events for magazines such as Good Housekeeping, Woman's Journal, Cosmopolitan and BBC History. She lives in Bath and is a keen organic gardener.

Sarah Rose - Marketing

Sarah was motivated to work with GardenAfrica because of her close links with the communities they work within, and the approach they take by engaging with issues through local organisations rather than applying a preconceived notion of how the work needs to be done. Sarah brings experience in fundraising and campaigning to GardenAfrica and is currently studying towards an MSc in development management.

Carol Perkins - Copywriting / Publicity

Carol writes copy for GardenAfrica's website and marketing materials. She also writes Muswell Hillbilly, the GardenAfrica blog. When she's not growing vegetables or helping out GardenAfrica, Carol works for a disability charity in North London. She has an Honours degree in Philosophy from Rhodes University in South Africa.

Jenny Holliday - Technical Copy

Jenny, who works as a management assistant at the British Council, was attracted to GA in 2006 by a write-up in the paper and was very interested in the link between gardening and sustainability. For her, the process of building a sustainable livelihood is not only practical, but also meets huge emotional and psychological needs. If communities anywhere can understand, connect with and maximise the natural world around them the gain is personal as well as social. She integrates this in another UK garden project working with inner-city school children growing vegetables.

Jonathan Campbell - IT Support

For many years Jon, a database designer for Islington Council's asylum team, wondered how he could contribute to charitable 'causes', yet felt a disconnect between the large charities and their approaches on the ground. Like most of us, he is regularly accosted in the street by 'chuggers', but has never been moved to sign up to that monthly payment. Instead Jon decided to contribute his time and expertise to GardenAfrica, keeping our systems linked and ticking over, ensuring data is protected and backed-up, and introducing us to new software to streamline our activities. Jon continues to make a central contribution to our work as we grow.

David Gash - Web Design and Newsletter Creation

With a number of years of experience in the Information Technology arena, focusing largely on web technology and search engine optimisation, David has been able to help a number of organisations with their marketing strategies, enabling them to compete more efficiently and effectively within the market place. Like Jon, he was dissatisfied with many a charity and decided that the best thing he could offer were his time and skills to a worthy cause. He has an Honours degree in Information Systems and Management from Rhodes University in South Africa.