PROVINCIAL ADOPTION COALITION

Eastern Cape (PE) – Linda Van Zyl

lindavzyl@hotmail.com

Linda van Zyl completed her social work studies in 1974 at Hugenote Kollege (Wellington). She started her adoption journey and career in 1978 at SAVF Pretoria after which she joined CMR Port Elizabeth. She is an accredited adoption social worker in private practice since 2007 as well as acting as a consultant to an adoption unit.

Gauteng (Tshwane) – Manuela Christina Viera (Nina) De Caires

Nina De Caires completed her social work degree at the University of Pretoria in 1989 and started working at Child Welfare in 1990 in the Child Protection field. She specialized in child abuse and therapy for 6 years, then went into supervision and management. Nina has  29 years of social work experience in Child Protection, Supervision and Management. She has been the supervisor of the Adoption Unit at Child Welfare Tshwane since 2009 where all adoption services are rendered.

Nina states “I have a passion for adoption and believe that every child and person  is special and crosses our path for a reason. I believe that we are there to try to make a positive difference in the lives of children. It is an honour to be part of such a profound process in people’s lives even with all the challenges and issues that cross our path.”

Western Cape (Tshwane) – Tilda Fick

tilda@abbaadoptionwc.co.za

Tilda Fick is employed as Manager of the Western Cape satellite office of Abba Specialist Adoption and Social Services. She qualified as a social worker in 1992 after which she worked at CMR in Johannesburg and Pretoria for 10 years. She has been working in the field of adoptions since 2004 and also acts as Chairperson of the Western Cape Adoption Coalition.

Julie Todd

Married to Mark and mom of two adopted children, this registered social worker is qualified in law and has been practising in the field of child protection for more than 30 years. Serving as Director of The Child and Family Welfare Society of Pietermaritzburg for the last 14 years – the second largest local non-governmental child protection agency in KZN, South Africa – she also supervises the adoption section of the organisation.

She currently serves on several local, national and regional boards and committees and twice as chairperson of the South African Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. She was part of the initial South African NGO Working Group on the Childrens Bill (now Childrens Act) and over the past seven years has been involved in local trainings on the Act, and draft regulations. In 2000 she successfully co-chaired the 13^th International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (Ispcan) Congress held in Durban, South Africa (the first such Congress in Africa). Two years later 2002 she became only the 3^rd person from Africa and at the time the 1^st from South Africa to be elected onto the Ispcan Council since its inception in 1976.  During her two terms of office (2002-2014) she served more than half of her time on the Executive Committee where she chaired the Membership Committee and later the Congress and Conferences Committee. In 2012 Julie was appointed as the Ispcan Co-Chair for the XXth Ispcan Congress which was held in Nagoya, Japan, in September 2014.

Julie has participated globally presenting a wide range of child protection issues at International Conferences which included: ‘Indigenous issues relating to the protection of children’, ‘Child participation – lip-service or reality’, ‘Listening to children vs hearing them – understanding the difference and making it count’, ‘The value of international networks’ and ‘Child Participation’.

She is a past president of the local Azalea Rotary Club, Pietermaritzburg and in June 2012 was awarded the Rotary International Paul Harris Award for outstanding service in the community. In August 2015 she was appointed National Head of Advocacy for Child Welfare SA, a volunteer position she occupies in addition to that of Director of a local Child Welfare Society.