Nadine Wright is a school teacher by profession and spent a number of years in business before becoming involved in the non-profit sector and now heading up Nation Changers.

Her strong belief is that there is nothing more therapeutic for the human soul than to help another.

Nadine is living her dream, working into impoverished areas and changing lives through education, feeding programmes, skills development and building projects. This is what she’s wanted to do from a young age, in line with Isaiah 58, where we’re told to restore, rebuild and renovate the communities around us.

She previously established the MySchool card in KZN, a loyalty card that raises funds for schools and charities through retailers. She then took on the position of Donor Relations Manager at Focus on iThemba, a non-profit organisation for orphaned children, with a school for the impoverished. Her experience in these roles has been invaluable in preparing her to lead Nation Changers.

She and her husband Murray have been active members of CityHill Church for the past 28 years. They have 5 children and 8 grandchildren.

Sam matriculated from Gill College in Somerset East in 1989 and went on to obtain a diploma in Tourism at the Port Elizabeth Technikon. Sam started her career at the end of 1992 at the Port Elizabeth Publicity Association. After moving to East London and entering the paralegal field at a law firm, Sam spent the next 14 years in the legal field.

Ten years ago Sam, her husband Christo and two boys, Zach and Alec moved to Durban where she spent 5 years as a stay at home mom. She started working at Nation Changers in February 2017, in the role of co-ordinator.

Sam is passionate about bettering the lives and futures of those in need, working at Nation Changers is her passion and purpose.

Tinky comes from an accounting background and over the years, with her husband Ray has run a number of Spar shops and trading stores. They have 2 daughters, a son and 5 grandchildren.

Once Tinky retired she was able to follow her dream, to help the needy. She loves being with people and adding value, which is exactly what she’s now doing by running the Nation Changers ‘Clothing Box’ ministry. This involves mobilizing other volunteers to help sort and pack clothing donations into bags which unemployed people purchase. These people from our local impoverished communities have been empowered to start their own small businesses selling the items of clothes in the bags and by so doing, supporting their extended families.

Tinky’s kindness and compassion for the needy is contagious!

Rachel studied a Bachelor of Primary Education Degree at Edgewood Teachers Training College. She went on to teach at Lyndhurst Primary and Thomas More College before having her three boys. She then decided to become a stay at home mom and became very involved in the church.

Rachel had a deep desire to teach in underprivileged schools, so about eight years ago started volunteer teaching in the rural crèches. She loves interacting with children and the satisfaction of making a difference in their lives by showing love and educating them. Rachel also excels at leading other volunteers in this work.

When she heard about the Neema Gateway to Reading Programme, she was very excited as this programme is ideal for teaching reading and English. Her primary aim, however, is to teach the little ones about Jesus and show them, unconditional love. She also thrives on working closely with the teachers to motivate and equip them to use this programme.

Margie Dunn is a wife, mother of 5 and Granny to 4. She’s retired after teaching Pre School for 30 years. However, she remains passionate about Early Childhood Education and was fortunate to have been given excellent teacher training.

She is a volunteer with Nation Changers, visiting crèches in the Embo area on a weekly basis. As a result of these visits, she realised that she could make a difference to upskill the dedicated but untrained teachers and went on to develop a training course, which she’s called Fundisa Ngothando (to teach with love).

With the blessing of Nation Changers, the course ran on 9 Saturday mornings at Embo City Hill and offered 35 teachers both practical and theoretical support. Margie plans to repeat the course this year.

God has faithfully opened doors for her and the teachers, 6 of whom have received sponsorship to further their professional development with Caversham Training Institute this year.

Margie feels truly blessed by God to be able to give back in a small way to a most deserving ministry.

Wendy Royal [B Sc HDE] is the team leader of our Nation Changes Early Childhood Education Program.

Wendy began her teaching career as a High School Biology and Science teacher. This was followed by a season of running a small Pre-school while her children were young.

God then called her into Children’s Ministry where she headed up the team at City Hill Church for 10 years.

Combining her passion for Christ, People and Education, Wendy’s focus over the past 8 years has been to help build sustainable Early Childhood Education programs in economically disadvantaged communities.

Knowing that crucial foundations for development and learning are laid during these early years; continues to motivate Wendy to encourage meaningful stimulation through play, even in the most challenging environments.

As with her own six grandchildren, Wendy’s dream is to see all the children Nation Changers has the privilege of working with, reach their full potential in Christ.

Susan Lichter was born in South Africa and lived along the east coast of South Africa for all of her childhood. She met her husband, Dierk, at school. Once they were married, they moved inland and had three children. They have a son and two daughters, and two gorgeous granddaughters.

Susan is a creative and is always extremely happy when learning something new in a creative area.

She is completely comfortable with anything hands-on or practical. Design, drawing, sculpting, sewing, embroidery, art, digital art – you name it, Susan’s tried it! Her mother and father were both creative and there is quite a heritage of the arts in her family. Even though she pursued hairdressing straight out of school and hasn’t ever managed to quite retire from it 45 years down the line, she certainly dabbled in the arts and crafts along the way.

Susan gets such joy from sharing her collected knowledge with others and helping them find their authentic gifts, because finding her gifts has really helped her through many obstacles in her life.

She believes we were all made to create and that because we were created by our Father in Heaven, creativity is in all of our DNA!

Her heart is to encourage people to see that there is a vast array of creative areas in life and that it is certainly not only about fine art. She desires to see people become creative in the area God has placed them so that they will begin to find their own unique, creative gifts.