Sonke Gender Justice
Heather van Niekerk is an accomplished finance and operations professional with over two decades of experience in leadership roles across various nonprofit organizations. Currently serving as Co Executive Director and Operations Director at Sonke Gender Justice since November 2013, Heather's extensive background includes positions such as Regional Finance Manager at both Save the Children International and Save the Children Sweden Southern Africa Office, as well as Executive Director at Amnesty International South Africa. Earlier in Heather's career, roles included Head of Finance and Administration at Sports Coach's Outreach and Financial Manager at the Equal Opportunity Foundation. Heather holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting from the University of South Africa and completed secondary education at Groenvlei Senior Secondary from 1983 to 1988.
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Sonke Gender Justice
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Established in 2006, Sonke Gender Justice (Sonke) works in all of South Africa’s nine provinces and in more than twenty countries across Southern, East, Central and West Africa to prevent domestic and sexual violence, reduce the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS and promote gender equality and human rights. Sonke’s work has been featured as an example of global best practice by many UN agencies, including the World Health Organisation, UNAIDS, UNDP, and by key women’s rights organisations such as the International Women’s Health Coalition and Action AID. In a 2011 survey conducted by Philanthropedia, Sonke was selected by 80 experts as one of the top performing NGOs working globally to end violence against women. Sonke was also selected as a runner up to the 2011 French Human Rights Prize. In 2012 Sonke was selected for the Mail and Guardian’s Investing in Change Award and featured in the official South Africa progress report to UNAIDS as an example of best practice. With an annual budget of about ZAR70 million/$4 million US dollars, Sonke’s nearly 100 staff work out of offices in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Bushbuckridge and Gugulethu and use a broad range of social change strategies to achieve the organisations goals, including: 1) community education and mobilisation; 2) media advocacy and communication for social change; 3) legal and policy advocacy; 4) alliance building; and 5) capacity building and training for government and UN agencies.