Join the VSA today and support our work!

If you would like to support our work in the ECSPIRT and Village Scribe Project, pay your membership fee today and become an official member. As an official member you will have the right to attend meetings and to vote. You will further receive the monthly newsletter. Please, contact us to receive more information.

You can also simply choose your type of membership (see below) and transfer the fee to our bank account stating your full name, period and type of membership as reason for payment. As soon as we have received the fee, we will send you a receipt of payment and your membership certificate.

The VSA vzw. Management Board

Dr. Anna Wertlen (chairperson) was born in Berlin. She studied Biology in Berlin, South Africa (Diploma) and Argentina (PhD). To work in a more applied environment and to be able to change something she now lives in Grahamstown, South Africa, and

Amanda McPhail (secretary) was born in Zimbabwe, studied in South Africa (she holds a Masters in Science - Fisheries Management), and is currently living in Belgium. Her profession is Research Database Specialist. Whilst on a motorbike journey from South Africa

manages the VSA’s current supported projects. She advocates for better education conditions in various African areas. In her opinion, the right of education is a fundamental human right and requirement for a dignified and promising life. This conviction led to the idea to found - together with her husband Ronald Wertlen - the Village Scribe Association. She is further COO of eKhaya ICT, a software company that works closely together with the VSA.

Jan Baekelandt (treasurer) was born in Belgium, where he works as a gynaecologic oncologic surgeon. As part of his medical training he worked for two and a half years in South Africa. His love for the country, and his gratitude for the experience and opportunities it gave

to Egypt, including Sudan, in 2006, Amanda was struck by the plight of children in some of the poorest regions on the continent. Without the possibility of an education and no access to modern knowledge, children such as these might well always be waiting at the roadside with their plastic bottles begging for water. In addition, parenthood has been an immense motivation for her to want to help children in need. Amanda has represented Great Britain three times for Underwater Hockey. She is enthusiastic about the plans and intentions for the VSA. She is also a Professional Mother, works part time for a South African information service (NISC), and spent almost a year studying Dutch. She did extensive groundwork for the foundation of the Village Scribe Association.

him, motivates him to work for the VSA. He is further stimulated to help make a difference in Africa by the plight of the people in his wife's home country, and of the many people he encountered on his travels through Africa. Hoping to promote sports in South Africa, he competed in the 2005 World Championship double ironman triathlon in Lithuania under the South African flag, attaining tenth position.

Different types of memberships and fees

There are five different types of members:

1. Founder members: Representatives of the Association. They stand for the VSA with their famous name, their opinion and/or profession. They will have to sign the statute and advertise the VSA. Minimum number required: 3. Membership fee: voluntary contribution.
   

2. Board members: Administrators of the Association. They do the administrative work, i.e. chair person, vice chair person, treasurer, recording secretary and other functions. Minimum number required: 3. Membership fee: voluntary contribution.
   

3. Passive members: Regular members of the Association. They support us with a membership fee and their opinion. Minimum number required: as many as possible. Membership fee: 50 € per year. Reduced membership fee for persons under 18 years old, students, retirees, unemployed and handicapped persons: 25 € per year. Reduced membership fee for persons living in the developing countries: 5 € per year. Membership fee for companies and other organisations: individually adapted.
   

4. Active members: The driving force of the Association. They actively participate in projects, e.g. teachers, a school or one grade of school, or people that donate their time in some other way, e.g. programmers, lawyers, accountants, advertisers etc. Minimum number required: as many as possible. Membership fee: voluntary contribution.
   

5. Honorary members: The pride of the Association. They will be elected and honoured for their work for the VSA or for ICT4D in general by the members in the members meetings. Minimum number required: a nice number eventually. Membership fee: voluntary contribution.
   

The VSA Trust Trustees

Ronald Wertlen was born in South Africa and holds a B.Sc. Honours in Computer Science and a B.A. in Philosophy and Psychology from Rhodes. His Masters in Computer Science, which he read for at the University of Fort Hare Centre of Excellence in ICT4D, was awarded

in 2011. He is a founder and active member of the VSA, owner of eKhaya ICT a software consulting and management start-up in the field of ICT for Development (ICT4D) and professional associate at Rhodes University’s Anthropology Department. He has led several large commercial and research software development projects in the fields of search, business intelligence and peer-to-peer in the US, Germany and South Africa. He believes that the Internet is the only viable tool we have that can structure a ten billion member society in a sustainable manner. To this end, he is researching African challenges to the adoption of ICT and creating software applications that are suited to the context.

Craig Renaud was born and grew up in Zimbabwe. He studied law and linguistics at Rhodes University in Grahamstown and at University of Stellenbosch. Until 2006, he worked in the field of international banking in England,

Switzerland and South Africa. Since then, he has been in practice as an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa and is also a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at Rhodes University. He is an Associate Member of the Eastern Cape Society of Advocates. He does much good by engaging with civic groups and assisting pro bono.

Ford Evanson was born in Seattle, USA. For university and thereafter he lived in New York. After finishing his bachelor's degree in English and East Asian Studies, he founded a theatre company in Chicago and attended film school at Columbia College. He continued to teach 

and produce theatre in New York as well as gaining a Master's degree in Performance Studies from New York University. At the vulnerable age of 33, he discovered Africa (some say it was discovered before), fell in love with an Afrikaans maisie (young lady), got married and is now raising a family of three young toe-heads. His occupational ground now is with Rhodes University first as a lecturer and Master's student in Journalism and Media Studies and now in the Drama Department where he lectures and workshops with students about the unnerving art of trying to be entertaining and/or interesting -- hopefully both. He is both happy and proud to be a founder member and trustee of the VSA.