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Jenny Ashworth
Administration and Finance
Jenny joined the Travellers team in 2004 whilst on an 18 month
working holiday in the UK from Australia. She is based in Perth and
currently manages both Australia and New Zealand! Her favourite
achievement was completing the 4 day Inca trek to Machu Picchu in Peru
and her favourite pastimes are attending the old Aussie BBQ, surf, sun
and her friends. She is well travelled, having visited Western Europe,
South America, New Zealand, Thailand and Indonesia, and she still has
ambitions to travel to China and Africa. |
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PERU
Quinn Meyer
Peru Manager
Quinn has been working in the Peruvian Amazon for over 8 years. A
graduate anthropologist with a love for the outdoors, his goal is to
ensure the planet is inherited by his children in a better state than he
found it. Quinn loves working with volunteer's, rolling up his sleeves
and getting involved with the local communities as well as thinking he
might see a jaguar today! His favourite quote is: I'm a great believer
in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. |
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SOUTH AFRICA
Bill Fussell
South Africa Director
Bill was instrumental in starting Travellers in South Africa in
2000, and as such as seen the development of the business from the
beginning. He well remembers the very first volunteer, Hassan Iqbal, who
went to a school in George in March 2001 which is where it all started,
and has been anything but dull ever since.
Moving to Knysna from Cape Town in 2000, Bill was previously involved in
the construction industry having been transferred to South Africa from
the UK in 1968, initially for two years that somehow stretched into
forty.
Married to Val for 43 years, they have a daughter Helen, and two
grandchildren in Perth, Australia, which is where they like to be
whenever possible. They have travelled quite a bit, including Brazil,
Malaysia, and the USA (where Bill has a sister) and of course Europe and
several African countries.Bill
also
has a hysterically funny sense of humour that keeps us in stitches
(except when Chelsea loses matches!). |
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Jim Morel
Project Co-Ordinator and Volunteer Liaison, Cape Town
Jim
started with Travellers in 2004 after spending 2 years running a
conservation project dedicated to the preservation of the Knysna Seahorse.
Jim used to manage and look after our volunteers on the Seahorse project
and he showed such dedication to their wellbeing that when his project
terminated, we immediately asked him to join Travellers. Fortunately, he
accepted, and he has been looking after our volunteers, developing new
projects and generally assisting in the running of our South Africa
Programme ever since. He recently relocated from Knysna to Cape Town and
is continuing with his work from there, as well as acting as Volunteer
Liaison and Information Officer - he truly is a multi-skilled member of
our team. |
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Eleanor Kilduff
Volunteer Co-Ordinator and Care Projects Developer, Cape Town
Eleanor has lived in South Africa all her life except for two years
spent working as a teacher in England. She has now retired from
teaching, and does craft work and works part-time for Travellers. She is
married to Maurice, who is Irish and who came to spend a year
in South Africa and stayed for 40 years ! They live in a rambling old
house in Rondebosch, near to many of the placement schools. Eleanor,
Maurice and their daughter, Sharon (a teacher at one of the Travellers
placements), are all involved with working with adults or children with
special needs.
Travels : Eleanor has travelled extensively around South Africa and
Europe. She has climbed many of South Africa’s mountains, boulder-hopped
down several of the country’s beautiful river gorges, but is now
reaching the age where she enjoys watching other people reach summits
and hurtle down raging rivers. No-one will ever persuade her that bungee
jumping off a 250 metre high bridge is fun!!
Favourite moments working with Travellers volunteers : It is so
thrilling to see the children surrounding a volunteer and all trying to
get close enough to hug and cling to him or her. Another favourite
moment is seeing how Travellers volunteers have grown in maturity and
confidence during their time at the placements and knowing they will
carry the experience into whatever they do back at home.
“Eleanor was very gregarious and friendly,
always ready to put a smile on the faces of volunteers.”
Sophie Bufton |
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Sharon Dreyer
Administrator and Volunteer Liaison, Knysna
Sharon has recently joined Travellers Worldwide in the Knysna area.
She’s lived most of her life in South Africa, namely Johannesburg, Cape
Town, Durban and now Knysna, apart from a brief stint in the West
Midlands in the UK. She loves Knysna, and thinks it is definitely one of
the most beautiful spots in South Africa. She’s divorced with no
children but totally devoted to her cat! She loves meeting all the
volunteers that come out to Knysna and finds it very rewarding to see
how much of a difference they make in the lives of the children and the
community of Knysna.
In March 2011, Sharon was voted a Non-Executive Director of Sinethemba,
the Street Kids Project that we work with. We're thrilled to see that
the positive impact she has on our Knysna programme is expanding ...
well done, Sharon!
“Sharon in Knysna brightened every day up with her amazing
cheerfulness and enthusiasm!. It was great to see how involved she was
with all the projects and children.” Siobhan Scarlett |
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Neo Mbatha
Volunteer Liaison, eMakhosini.
Neo is a very happy family man, his two year old son and his police
officer wife make him extremely proud. He was born in the Ulundi area
and has lived at eMakhosini village since he started at the primary
school in 1987. He is very strongly associated with school, his nephews
are being taught by the same staff who taught him and he expects his son
to follow in his and his nephews footsteps.
After completing High School in 1999, Neo joined Amafa and has a really
good historical knowledge of the eMakhosini and although he has not left
South Africa to do any travelling, is really content with his occasional
visits to Johannesburg and loved the time that he spent with the
Travellers team in Kynsna. |
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Pretty
Knysna volunteer House Supervisor
Pretty is our 'home executive', or better known as the housekeeper
and 'mother' to many of our volunteers. She really is the unsung hero of
our volunteer houses in Knysna. She willingly, energetically and happily
keeps order and never complains. In fact, we think she doesn't know how
to complain! Pretty lives in the ‘Nekkies’ township, just outside Knysna,
with her husband and is a true star! |
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Christine Hydes
KwaZulu Natal Administrator
Christine joined Travellers
Worldwide in July 2007. She has travelled a fair amount but not yet
realised her teenage dream of visiting St Petersburg (hopefully one
day!). She did fly over it once on a trip back from Australia and stood
at the window peering out, wondering if this was the closest she would
ever get. She couldn’t actually see a thing though, because the cloud
cover was too thick. She is certain that the cloud cover was a
deliberate ploy!
She is a push-over for worthy causes and worthwhile ventures which is
why she thinks Travellers suits her so well – it’s in her nature to be
compassionate and caring. She is a proud mother of four sons, three born
in different countries and in different decades, and the fourth is an
adopted Zulu who is very close to flying the coop. She doubts that she
will suffer from the Empty Nest syndrome because as long as she is with
Travellers she will be in contact with Volunteers who, in some
instances, are likely to be the ages of her younger sons. She feels that
her maternal instincts materialising is not such a bad thing in her role
with Travellers!
Countries visited: Gibraltar, Spain, France, Malaysia, Australia,
Mozambique, Botswana. Lived in England, Zimbabwe and South Africa |
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SRI LANKA
Roshan Perera
Sri Lanka Director
Roshan has been our country Director for Sri Lanka since Travellers
first set up this Destination over 14 years ago. Needless to say, he has
a wealth of experience and before this was involved in many areas of
business. He has a constant smile on his face and is always very willing
and able to help make each volunteer’s placement as enjoyable as
possible. He has now taken a more senior role in the organisation of the
placements. He visits the UK regularly as he has family here and
regularly pops into Head Office to catch up on our progress and say hi! |
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Nirangela Adikari
Assistant Organiser and House Supervisor
Niranjala is the house mother for our main house in Ja-Ela and an
integral part of the Sri Lanka setup. She is a very chatty and extremely
friendly lady who has been with us now since 2004. Her interests include
shopping (lots), chatting, cricket (she has a mean cover drive!) and
more chatting! |
ARGENTINA
AUSTRALIA
BRAZIL
CAMBODIA
CHINA
ECUADOR
GHANA
INDIA
KENYA
MALAYSIA
MAURITIUS
MOROCCO
NEPAL
NEW ZEALAND
THAILAND
UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA
ZAMBIA
