Conference Chairpersons
Conference Co-Chairman
Prof Adrian van Breda
University of Johannesburg / President: ASASWEI
Dr Adrian van Breda is professor of social work at the University of Johannesburg and President of ASASWEI (Association of South African Social Work Education Institutions). He was a social worker in practice for 17 years, during which time he specialised in clinical and occupational social work. His research interests then were family resilience, deployment resilience and scale development and validation. These topics converged in his doctoral thesis, completed in 2004. He joined the University of Johannesburg in 2007 as a senior lecturer and was made full professor in 2016. He has 33 accredited publications, 19 of which are in international journals or books. He has been a key note or invited speaker at international conferences in Paris, Canada, Lebanon and Romania. His research focuses on resilience and youth transitions, with specific attention to the transition out of care into young adulthood. He was Head of Department of social work at the University of Johannesburg from 2014 to 2016, and chaired the Faculty of Humanities Higher Degrees Committee from 2011 to 2016. He is Vice President of Resilio, an international association for the promotion and dissemination of research on resilience, and principle investigator on a longitudinal study on the resilience of young people leaving residential care in South Africa.
Conference Co-Chairman
Dr Gidraph Wairire
University of Nairobi / President: ASSWA
Dr. Gidraph G. Wairire is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of Nairobi, Kenya where he teaches different social work units. He is also engaged in supervision of Post graduate students and field work supervision for social work students. He regularly consults for different organizations engaged in social service and social welfare responsibilities in Kenya. In addition, he engages in social work research in Kenya and in the East African region and also serves as a reviewer for different social work journals. His main areas of interest : Social work theory and practice, international social work, developmental social work, community development, social law, social work with minorities and social action for social change.
Committee
Dr. Anneline Keet
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University / ASASWEI
Dr. Anneline Keet is a senior lecturer at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. She graduated as a social worker in 1987 from the University of the Western Cape. She completed her MSW at the University of Pretoria in 1999 and her PhD at the same university in 2009 specialising in Employee Wellness Programmes. In addition to a long professional career, she has been involved in the academic training of social workers for the last eight years. She serves on the executive committee of ASASWEI. She teaches both at undergraduate and post-graduate level with teaching and research interests in solution-focused interventions, strength-based practices, anti-discriminatory social work and supervision and management. She has been the author and co-author of six publications.
Mrs Varoshini Nadesan
University of Johannesburg / ASASWEI
Mrs Varoshini Nadesan serves on the Exco of ASASWEI as the Treasurer. Mrs Nadesan graduated as a social worker at the University of Durban-Westville in 1986 and worked at the Department of Social Development in Chatsworth, KwaZulu Natal for 20 years, in the field of statutory, probation and victim empowerment services. In 2006 she was appointed to the South African Council of Social Services Professions as National Manager of Professional Conduct. In 2012 she joined the University of Johannesburg as a lecturer, teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Mrs Nadesan is one of a handful of persons with the dual qualification of social work as well as a South African masters in the field of child and youth care. The focus of her masters’ dissertation was on restorative justice practices. She is currently registered for her PhD in social work focusing on field instruction in social work education. She also serves on the UJ Wellness Committee as well as been appointed to many boards, most recently that of Alcoholics Anonymous as a Class A (Non-Alcoholic) Trustee, a Ministerial appointee to the Disaster Relief Fund Board, and the COGTA Disaster Bursary Committee.
Mr Frans Ramutla
Gauteng Department of Social Development: / DSD
B.A. (SW) degree – University of Limpopo. BA (SS) degree – UNISA.
MBA degree – De Montfort University (UK). Social Worker – Pretoria Child and Welfare Society : 1983 - 1987
Social Worker – Tembisa City Council : 1988 – 1994. Senior Social Workers – (1995 September).
Director – Gauteng Department of Social Development (Strategic Management (1995 - 2014),
Research and Policy Coordination (2014 – 2015), Stakeholder Relations (2016 – to date).
SABSWA President (2000 – 2003). The Role of Social Work in Development - SABSWA’s Transformation Challenges for the 21st Century (2000). Social Development in Action – Sharing experiences for Social Work interventions that Make an Impact (2001). Social and Economic Challenges Determining a Social Work Profession Value Adding Response. The themes of the conference were poverty and unemployment, HIV/AIDS and TB, and Small and Medium Enterprises development programmes (2002). Nine years of Democratic Freedom – Assessing the Impact and Mapping the Way Forward for Accelerating Socio – Economic Delivery (2003). NASWSA President (2013): Repositioning Social Services Professions for a Developmental State.
Dr Tanusha Raniga
University of Johannesburg / ASSWA
Dr Tanusha Raniga is a C2 NRF rated researcher who has published in national and international journals. Her teaching and research interests are social protection policy and poverty alleviation.
Galeboe Rapoo
Department of Social Development: Stakeholder Relations / DSD
Dorothee Hölscher
University of Kwa-Zulu Natal / ASSWA
Dorothee Hölscher is a lecturer and acting academic leader of social work at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. She has an interest in applied ethics in social work, practice with cross-border migrants and anti-oppressive social work theory and practice. Dorothee currently serves as secretary of the Association of Schools of Social Work in Africa, and she was a co-editor of the special issue on Africa of the journal, Ethics & Social Welfare, 2014. One of her recent publications is, ‘The Political is Personal: On Being, Knowing, and Doing Something about Social Justice', in Hugman, R. and Carter, J.
(eds.) Rethinking Values and Ethics in Social Work, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
