MEET THE TEAM

With extensive experience in healthcare leadership, she played a pivotal role in the national COVID-19 response, overseeing strategic planning and human resource mobilisation for the vaccine rollout.

Her diverse background includes directing the Keready mobile health outreach project, leading health programs for Advanced HIV and drug-resistant TB, and working at various national institutes such as the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, National Institute for Occupational Health, Office of the Health Ombuds, and Office of Health Standards Compliance. She has supported management at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital and Tembisa Provincial Hospital as a Public Health Medicine Registrar.

She started her career as an intern at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital and since then she has been driven by a passion for equitable healthcare, which she combines with strategic vision and hands-on implementation to address enduring public health challenges.

She has over 15 years’ experience in managing community-based nutrition programmes, including training of Community Health Workers on maternal, child health and nutrition in South Africa, Swaziland and Ethiopia.

Nicola has been with Grow Great since 2018 as the Grow Great Champion Programme Lead and was recently promoted to Deputy Executive Director of Grow Great in 2022. She is a passionate advocate for the health and nutrition of vulnerable pregnant women and children across South Africa.

She has worked in various sectors which have seen her in projects aimed at tackling health issues among youth and especially women and children. Some of the high-profile projects that she’s worked on include MTV Shuga 16 & Pregnant, The Comrades Marathon, and working alongside UNICEF.

Dudu is also passionate about sustainable Corporate Social Investment (CSI) and has been able to successfully implement CSI strategies within the organisations she has worked with over the years.

She is inspired by South African women who empower young girls who strive to be a better version of themselves.

Jabulile has over 10 years experience in administration of civil society organisations.

Her career commenced as a Branch Administrator for The Big Shoes Foundation, a pioneer paediatric palliative care project incubated by Wits Palliative Care in 2007.

In 2010, she progressed to the role of Regional Administrator and promoted in 2016 to the role of Executive Assistant for the Southern African Aids Trust, a regional organisation that focuses on community systems for equitable and inclusive health.

In 2016, she accepted the role of Senior Administrator for The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, an organisation spearheading reconciliation, democracy and a human rights culture in South Africa. The Douglas Murray Trust currently employs Jabulile as the Operations Manager of the Grow Great Campaign.

Jabulile is currently pursuing the completion of her Diploma in Business Management with Rosebank College.

The highlights of her career include four years with Medecins sans Frontieres’ (MSF) HIV and TB project in Khayelitsha, as well as becoming a mother and relocating from Cape Town to Johannesburg.

These experiences have brought her to her present role as the Flourish Curriculum Developer and Master Trainer at Grow Great.

Her personal and professional experiences of pregnancy, early childhood and motherhood have made her acutely aware of the vulnerability faced by parents and the potential impact of this on their children.

This understanding is her motivator as Flourish works towards creating a network of empowered moms, supported to raise children capable of reaching their full potential in life.

 She had always dreamed of pursuing a career as an art director, and eventually owning her own ad agency.

During her second year of studying, she had a change of heart and fell in love with radio and decided that would be her final year major. She graduated with a diploma in radio and broadcasting production.

A year after graduating and knocking on many doors, she was fortunate enough to secure an internship with one of the best talk radio stations in the country, Talk Radio 702. Her first role at the station was that of a promotions producer, before vying for her dream role of becoming a content producer. After four years at the helm of influencing and driving important conversations in the country she changed roles, moved departments and wore the hat of a digital content producer.

After six years, she parted ways with her first love – radio. Soon thereafter she was afforded the opportunity of delving into television, another interest and passion of hers. She assumed the role of researcher, working on a reality show called Stereotype Drop. It was a brief stint, but presented many learning opportunities.

Mmakgomo is now a Flourish coach and can confidently say this has been one of the most fulfilling things she has done in her life. Being at Flourish has given her a sense of purpose and belonging – she no longer feels misplaced.

She is currently a member of the DELTAS Africa Sub-Saharan Africa Consortium for Advanced Biostatistics (SSACAB) training programme and South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA).

Her research interests are Bayesian statistics, time series analysis spatial modelling, data science, and analysis of health surveys, impact evaluation of programmes and interventions.

Previously, she worked at the South African Council for Educators as a Data Capturer Officer where she oversaw the data capturing, compiling, cleaning and analysis process for their research projects.

Her interest in child health developed when she did an internship with the Department of Health where during her studies, she investigated the effect of healthcare services delivery on stillbirths. She further wants to research child nutrition.

Her personal interests include farming.

She furthered her studies, completing a Further Diploma in Education Management with the University of Pretoria and a TEFL course with Boston College.

After a 10-year career with the Department of Education as an Educator, her love for interacting with different people saw her leaving the department and starting a career in sales and marketing. She spent a few years working for companies like Old Mutual, Sanlam and Bytes Document Solutions, among others.

While working in sales, various opportunities arose for her to work on freelance jobs in publishing and research. This kickstarted her career path as a Freelance Research Field Worker and a Freelancer in publishing.

She has worked on various projects both in publishing and research, with companies like Pearsons, Maskew Miller and Systems Approach, to mention a few, where her love for working with people of different cultures in different communities was enhanced. It was during her time working on one of these projects that she was identified to work as a Facilitator and a Coach for Flourish.

She has worked with and led some of South Africa’s finest financial minds: from  starting her career at PWC to taking part in the 2010 stadium-building of Moses Mabhida Stadium at Group Five Construction; and joining a multitude of NGOs (The Aids Foundation SA, Treatment Action Campaign and Grassroots Soccer).

She is a highly organised, detail-oriented person who has proven experience in setting clear goals and achieving them on time.

Beyond all this she is a mother of two boys who is passionate about children’s welfare and adding value to others. Thokozile is a lover of the outdoor lifestyle and always has unread books to read.

One thing has remained constant for her: she sees her profession as a pillar for change.

Manqoba enjoys working with cross-functional teams to develop innovative products and systems that will give organisations a competitive edge.

He has worked for the Mpumalanga Department of Health and various NGOs over the 10-year period.  He has held various roles such as Data Quality Officer, Information Officer, Data Manager, Technical Support Engineer, and District IT Officer.  He has also had the opportunity to be seconded to the National Department of Health between 2014 – 2015.

Manqoba believes in expanding his professional skillset and building great relationships. He loves takings on new challenges and believe that learning something new every day opens a whole new world.  His role is to ensure that organisations such as Grow Great invest in the use of technology and data to guide their programmes and reach their goals.

Manqoba is currently pursuing his Bachelor of Laws Degree.  With society embracing technology, he would like to understand how the aspect of law will deal with the benefits of technology and the challenges that may arise.

Beauty has extensive experience and knowledge. As an ASELPH fellow, Beauty has made significant contributions to various NGOs focused on child nutrition, particularly for children under five.

Her dedication to advancing our mission of ending stunting in South Africa is evident in her passionate commitment to child health.

In this role Bernadette oversees the philanthropic work of the ELMA Group of Foundations in southern Africa. She also serves on the Boards of the ELMA Philanthropies Services (US) Inc., and the ELMA South Africa Foundation.

She also serves as a Trustee of the Discovery Foundation which supports the education and training of medical specialists in South Africa. Prior to joining ELMA in 2006, Bernadette was chief executive officer of the Women’s Development Bank Trust, an organization that promotes the participation of women at all levels of the economy through investing in leading South African companies, providing microcredit to poor rural women, supporting the growth of small and medium women- owned businesses and supporting the appointment of women to executive and board roles in major South African companies.

Bernadette has international experience as an entrepreneur and corporate lawyer. Previously Bernadette served as a consultant to the Commission on Gender Equality advising them on issues of women’s economic empowerment. The Commission published her work The Working Woman’s Manual a volume on women and labor law in South Africa (1996). Honored by France with the Ordre de Merité in 2007, she holds a magna cum laude BA degree from Wellesley College in the United States and a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia University also in the United States.

After completing his medical internship in 1990, David joined the Child Health Unit of the University of Cape Town, working on policy issues related to child health, nutrition and early childhood development. He completed an MSc(Med) related to the planning of child health services in Khayelitsha.

In 1991, he founded the Health Systems Trust (HST), a non-government organisation supporting health policy and services development in South Africa. In his capacity as Director of HST, he established the South African Health Review – an annual assessment of health and health care, and the Initiative for Sub-District Support, working with the Department of Health to improve the quality of health care in clinics throughout South Africa.

In 2000, he completed a Masters in Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, before returning to South Africa to head up loveLife, a national HIV prevention programme for young people. In 2010, he joined the DG Murray Trust, which has a significant focus on early childhood development (ECD) and education and opportunities for young people.