About Us & Contact

A UK registered charity, Seed Community was founded in May 2011.

We believe that everyone has potential but not everyone has the opportunity to realise it. At SEED Community the focus of every project we engage in is to create and cultivate pathways to education, providing the opportunity for people to realise their full potential.

Since 2011, The SEED Community Loan Programme provides interest free loans to girls for their tertiary education. With 100% of loams being paid back, we understand education is not just about economics, but about creating a supportive environment for individuals to flourish. We believe that girls education provides the key to creating healthy, sustainable communities.

Since 2014, GirlZtalk, provides safe spaces for girls and young women online and on the ground where girls can share their voice and support one another through the challenges they face. As Desmond Tutu said:

‘When you come to believe you count, you have a worth that is unquestionable.’

With an expanding community of more than 90000 we are one of the fastest growing platforms for girls in South Africa.

In 2017 we established The Green Business College to recruit, train and develop aspiring ‘green entrepreneurs’. With a focus on the under-employed members of the community, the Green Business College teaches innovative ‘green skills’ partnered with key business skills and provides links to sales channels to assist students to set up their own sustainable, environmentally friendly, small business. We believe fostering entrepreneurship is key to addressing unemployment in South Africa.

Contact: [email protected]
UK Registered Charity Number: 1142652
South Africa NPO Number: 152-698 NPO

Meet the Team

Christina Vestey

Christina Vestey is the founder of Seed Community. With a Bachelors degree from Sydney University majoring in Social Anthropology, she worked with women in developing nations for 20 years. Her research into girls’ education and student loans in developing nations and their lack of availability, brought forth the concept for Seed Community, which she founded in May 2011. In 2014 she directed her first award winning documentary short, GirlZtalk. Her work with young women in South Africa led to the development of GirlZtalk as an online platform for girls. Between 2016 – 2017 she completed the Global Social Entrepreneurship Course at Basel University. In July 2017, together with Dorah Marema she opened the Green Business College in Johannesburg.

Contact: [email protected]

Dorah Marema

Dorah manages Seed Community’s operations in South Africa. She has an Honors degree in Information Science and has worked with a wide range of NGOs and in different sectors both rural and urban settings level since 1997. She has been involved in issues of sustainability since 2000 and she worked with a wide range of multi-stakeholder participatory initiatives involving communities, NGOs, government and other institutions in various sectors including small-scale agriculture, environment, climate change, renewable energy, gender and land-rights at local, national and international levels.

Contact: [email protected]

Mutshidzi Maria Kwinda

I was introduced to She Evolves in 2014 when it was called GirlZtalk under the umbrella of Seed Community. Although I was not formally part of the team, I have contributed to the organization in various capacities for at least five years. In 2020, when She Evolves was officially launched, I was part of the masterminds in the brainstorming process together with the founder Christina Vestey and co-founder Phindile Sithole-Spong. I have since been working as a writer and Facebook manager. My writing is mostly inspired by the healthcare knowledge I obtained in my undergraduate studies as a pharmacy student and my experience as a cancer survivor. Amongst many other writing genres, like book reviews, storytelling, sharing tips and tricks from tried experiences, I highly advocate for women’s health and well-being.

Contact: [email protected]

Seed Community Trustees UK:

Christina Vestey
Line Hadsbjerg
Dirk Euler

Seed Community South Africa NPO:

Christina Vestey
Dorah Marema
Bongekile Dlamini

Advisory Team

In 2018 we have established a voluntary advisory team. Who better to give advice and participate in the decision-making processes for the future of SEED? We believe it is our graduates from the SEED Community Student Loan Programme. All team members have successfully completed their studies and have gone on to work within the corporate sector. This marks a new and exciting era for the SEED Community Loan Programme.