History

Supporters & Partners

Customers

Our Team

Our Board

Toni Eliasz (Executive Director, Co-Founder)

As an Executive Director, Toni is responsible for the overall performance of Ungana-Afrika including strategic management, program development, global partnerships, financial management, and sales and fundraising efforts of the organisation. Toni plays a high-level role with all the programs and projects, but he has currently a special focus on the mobile technology activities, which fall under his expertise area.

Combined with a background from several demanding positions with Finnish technology companies prior to Ungana, Toni has build a strong ability to succeed in environments where a mix of development, business, and technology skills are needed. His current main interests are related to the accelerated development via adoption of new and emerging technologies (such as mobile phones), and business models for sustainable development.

Toni holds a master's of science degree from one of the top European universities and is a passionate tea lover who doesn't turn down any offers for outdoor adventures, such as mountaineering or climbing trips.

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Angel Kgokolo (Junior Program Officer)

Angel joined Ungana-Afrika as an eRider in 2005. She was initially responsible for a ICT capacity building and support project that served a number of community radio stations in Mpumalanga province, South Africa. Currently she holds a position as a Junior Program Officer for Ungana-Afrika, responsible for Strategic Technology Planning with a variety of organisations, and coordination of ICT incubation workshops in the Southern Africa region (SADC region, 9 countries).

She holds National Diploma in Financial Information Systems from Tshwane University of Technology, and certificates in Project Management from UNISA, A+ and N+ certified through Comptia.

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Rudi von Staden (Programme Manager, Co-founder)

Rudi was part of the initial team that established Ungana-Afrika. He has pioneered some of the organisation's core services, such as Strategic Technology Planning. He has also been responsible for a number of successful projects related to concept development, planning and rural support and capacity building. He is currently programme manager for the Rural Connectivity Project, and is involved in the development of strategies for sustainable rural technology support.

Rudi graduated from Stellenbosch University in 2002 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. Soon afterwards he joined Ungana-Afrika because it was well aligned with his values, and because it gave him an opportunity to use and develop his skills in innovative ways to support the under-served. Rudi is also interested in geography and ecology, and is currently studying towards an Honours degree in Geographic Information Science.

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Tshepo Thlaku (Programme Manager)

Tshepo Thlaku joined Ungana-Afrika in 2003, since then has successfully managed a number projects that include the technology assessment of Health organisations in Mamelodi Township and the ICT capacity building of Community Radio Stations in Mpumalanga. He has also provided training and facilitated workshops in about 6 countries in the SADC region. He is currently leading a the Southern African incubation programme that helps organisations in the region to implement sustainable ICT projects.

Before joining Ungana-Afrika Tshepo Thlaku was a project consultant with ADCOME in Cameroon implementing ICT development programmes focused on rural Schools and worked at Johnnic Entertainment as a Analyst Programmer. As a passionate advocate for youth he served in community organisations Moretele District Football Association and AIESEC (an international student leadership and exchange program) and he is currently an active leader in Junior Chamber International, which is a worldwide federation of youth leaders and entrepreneurs. Tshepo Thlaku has a Bachelor of Technology degree in Information Technology specialising in Software Development.

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Ryan Jacobs (Co-Founder, Former Project Manager)

As a co-founder Ryan was with Ungana-Afrika from the very beginning, and worked with the team in Southern Africa until 2006. During his 4 years at Ungana, Ryan was involved in a variety of capacities, most notably as a project manager (of several capacity building programs that now serve as models for growing support efforts) and trainer. Since 2006 he has kept strong ties to Ungana-Afrika both personally and professionally, and continues to work closely with the organisation as an associate.

Before entering the development community within Africa, Ryan was studying and working for many years in the technical and engineering sectors of the United States. By transitioning to Civil Society in 2002, Ryan's objective is to apply his technical background and management experience within a more socially-motivated context.

Ryan is currently studying Spanish in Argentina and working as a private consultant. You can read more about Ryan, and contact him, at his personal website, www.ryanjacobs.name