Sarah Collins grew up on the East Coast of South Africa. Her background is social development with a huge passion for the environment and conservation. Having spent 10 years in community-based tourism in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, she returned to South Africa in the early 2000s. She realised that poverty alleviation projects were the key to grassroots conservation in Africa, and spent 5 years with the NGO, LoveLife, where she implemented an environmental youth leadership programme named Take Back the Future.
Since 2008, the Wonderbag has been her passion and purpose. It has taken 3 years of passion, drive, trial and error and dogged determination for Sarah to get the Wonderbag to where it is now.
Today, the Wonderbag is South Africa’s first official Clean Development Mechanism [CDM] project being registered with the UNFCCC. It is poised for expansion across Africa and globally.
“Because Wonderbag works, people keep using it. Because people keep using it, Wonderbag massively reduces carbon emissions.”
Sarah Collins, Wonderbag founder
Murray Collins, Co-funder and Partner
Murray's passion for conservation and the wild areas of Africa make him an obvious and invaluable partner for Natural Balance. He has inspired other conservation leaders to invest in difficult but important land rehabilitation projects in Zambia, Mozambique, Zululand and the Seychelles. Murray sees his involvement in the Wonderbag as an extension of his conservation work – a simple yet powerful solution that empowers communities and combats climate change.
“Wonderbag creates jobs in places where jobs need to be created.”
Moshy Mathe, Wonderbag manufacturing partner
Moshy Mathe was born in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. With her positive and unwavering determination she has become a leader and trail blazer for youth development in South Africa. She does this through creating opportunities such as YFS for disadvantaged communities, specifically women and girls. Youth For Survival (YFS) was the first co operative based manufacturing team to create and make the Wonderbag. She is now the ambassador of Wonderbag throughout communities in South Africa and has become a household name representing opportunity and optimism.
Dr Adam Harvey
Dr Adam Harvey is our carbon manager. He brings a wealth of renewable energy consultancy and carbon accreditation know-how to the table. After gaining his PhD in Engineering Science at the University of Warwick in 1988, Dr Harvey has enjoyed a successful career with a focus on sustainable development in develpoping countries. With UNFCCC accreditation so key to Wonderbag's success, Dr Harvey's understanding of carbon accounting and validation is an invaluable resource for us.
Jon de Bufanos
Came on board towards the end of 2011 to take on the general operations of the business with a specific focus on the finance, and carbon credits functions. Jon is a qualified CA(SA) who did his articles at Ernst & Young before spending 5 years abroad, initially in Washington DC and then in the financial institutions of London. He has been brought on board to assist the company to grow by implementing sound business structures to keep up with the organic growth within it's operations.
Paula Harvey
Paula came on board in early 2010 to steer the Natural Balance ship into the uncharted water of retail merchandising. With a background in marketing and category management, Paula loves the experience of both cooking and sharing the excitement of Wonderbag with the public at large.
Minta Hesketh
Minta heads up the supply chain and logistics areas of the Wonderbag business. Her wealth of knowledge in supply chain management, retail logistics, business systems and processing has been gathered over 12 years in senior management and executive positions within retail and business logistics.
Tanah Dankert
Tanah is our KZN project manager. Her first job was helping to deliver the 100,000 Wonderbags for the Unilever Rajah project. She now manages the manufacturing co-ops in KZN and other regions across South Africa. Tanah currently oversees the Ilembe district, LIV Village, Thabanchu and Botsabelo co-ops.
Fiona James
Fiona oversees the admin and accounts support team in Durban and Johannesburg - the backbone of order and organisation in the Natural Balance business. Thanks to her, our systems ensure that people are paid, stock is accounted for and our customer service promises are turned into reality.
Mpho Malatji
Mpho heads up the Johannesburg office. She speaks seven of the official languages, enabling us to reach the people who need and would benefit the most from using the Wonderbag. Mpho is also responsible for corporate and community demos.
Kris Naidoo
Kris is the Wonderbag warehouse manager. He joined Natural Balance from MAN Truck and Bus, and now ensures the effective and efficient warehousing of our bags.
Charmain Lines
Charmain joined the Natural Balance team in 2009 as a PR and communication consultant. An avid Wonderbag cook, Charmain's role is to communicate the wonders of the bag to the rest of the world.
Jacs Squire
Although Jacs only joined us in November 2011 to head up our UK development division, she has been an enthusiastic supporter of Wonderbag and Sarah Collins for some time. Her experience in community project management will help us establish our UK suppliers and manufacturing partners, as well as generating contacts with UK press and customers.
“By embracing the Wonderbag, individuals, community organisations, corporations and governments can have a huge collective impact on the environment. The carbon tonnes that will be saved as more and more people cook with a Wonderbag is what drives us.
Eco-cooking with a Wonderbag makes revolutionary change simple.”
Sarah Collins, Wonderbag founder
About Natural Balance
Natural Balance, the company behind the Wonderbag, was founded in 2005. As one of South Africa’s first social enterprises, our purpose was to bring about sustainable social change through projects that conserve the environment while alleviating poverty.
