Kalahari Garden Project - Staff Profiles

Hattie Wells, Project Coordinator

Hattie is GDF’s Regional Coordinator for Southern Africa, and Coordinator for the Kalahari Garden Project. She is a medical anthropologist and received an MSc in Ethnobotany from the University of Kent-RBG Kew in 2005. Hattie has visited and conducted research in Corridor since 2002. She has been the fundraiser and organizer of the project from the start.

Abraham Mothlaping, Assistant Coordinator

Abes is the assistant coordinator for the project. Abes grew up in Corridor and has been working in San development for 6 years. Setswana is his mother tongue, but he is also fluent in English, Afrikaans, Herero, and Kgalagadi. He can speak and understand Nama and !Xoon at a basic level.

Joseph Bessa, Field Operations

Joseph is a local Nharo speaking  San. He is also fluent in Afrikaans, Herero, Nama languages and speaks and understands English extremely well. He has had no previous experience in development, but has been employed locally by farmers for cattle herding and mechanical repairs. He is assisting us in every aspect of the project, including translating, community mobilisation and garden construction and maintenance.

Ian Martin, Horticultural Consultant

Ian is curator of the Dry Tropics Biome at the Eden Project in the UK. As the project’s horticultural consultant, Ian designed the gardens. He visited the site for three weeks during September and provided training in constructing gardens and sowing seeds.

Simon Stronach, Horticulture Volunteer

Simon will be the Kalahari Graden Project's volunteer from Sept 2008 for 6 months. His background is in landscaping and design and he will assist with horticultural training in the San communities as well as the building and maintenance of the gardens. He has a growing interest in Ethnobotany and especially herbal medicine, and hopes to further this during his time with the San in Namibia. He will assist in the gathering of data on wild plants and foods and their traditional uses.