ABOUT US
Directors of NILD SAMeet our passionate team behind NILD South Africa
Shireen Archibald
KWAZULU NATAL
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After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree and then an Honours degree in Psychology Shireen’s passion for helping struggling children took a turn. She trained as a NILD Educational therapist in 2008 (Level 1) and 2009 (Level 2).
Shireen has been a full time Expert NILD educational therapist since 2011. She is currently a Director, and works as a Psychometrist.
Shireen has just completed her Masters degree in Education Therapy (M.ED Educational therapy through SEU). She is also an Instructor for NILD SA encouraging teachers to use the programme she believes changes lives.
Chivonne Aldous
KWAZULU NATAL
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Chivonne completed her degree in education in 2009 and went on to do her honors in Inclusive Education in 2011. “I have always had a special interest in helping children with barriers to learning and there is nothing more rewarding to see a child achieve something that they could not do before.”
It was during her time as an LSEN teacher that she felt she needed some ‘extra tools’ to help those children in need. “I heard about NILD Therapy and I cannot believe how it has changed my life and the way I think. I am now a full time NILD Therapist and so blessed to be doing what I love as a career.”
Debbie Stroberg
KWAZULU NATAL
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After graduating from the Pretoria College of Education as a Foundation Phase teacher, Debbie completed a Further Diploma in Remedial Education through the College of Education for Further Training. She went on to teach in a class for children with special needs and it was here that she found her niche.
After several years out of teaching to raise her own family, Debbie returned to teaching and once again, found that her passion lay in working with those students who found learning to be a challenge.
She took the decision to start her NILD training in 2014 and qualified as a Level III Educational Therapist in 2019. Debbie is a qualified Search and Teach practitioner and has completed the NILD Rx for Discovery Reading, Writing and Math courses. As a newly recruited member of the Professional Support Team she heads up the Area Support Group for therapists in the Kwa-Zulu Natal Midlands region and has taken responsibility for the management and distribution of study materials and resources used in NILD Educational Therapy.
Working privately with students who learn differently, Debbie strives to give her students the tools that they need to become competent, life-long learners.
Debbie joined the Board of Directors in 2021
Rae Mosdell
EASTERN CAPE
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Teaching children how to learn independently is one of Rae’s greatest passions, and she enjoys discovering and creating novel ways of teaching concepts and skills, especially when it involves fun and games. She is passionate about helping her learners to find their own passions and strengths, and in motivating them to work through their areas of challenge. Her approach to therapy is always mindful of the maxim “leave no-one behind!”
Rae has over 30 years of experience in teaching in schools across South Africa. She spent the first 20 years of her teaching career teaching in the Foundation and Early Childhood development phases. It was whilst running a Mastery Unit at a school in the foothills of the Drakensberg in Kwazulu-Natal that she began exploring a calling into full time remedial therapy, and it was during this time that she embarked on acquiring her NILD Educational Therapy qualifications. She worked as a NILD Educational therapist and an Academic support therapist for 9 years and is currently working as a foundation phase educator.
Olive Surendorff
KWAZULU NATAL MIDLANDS
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Olive Surendorff is a newly-trained Level 3 Educational Therapist and member of the PST. She lives in the small town of Greytown and works at Wembley College as the Head of their Academic Support Department. She finds that the NILD techniques really work and has seen tremendous changes in her scholars’ achievements as well as their overall well-being.
Before she became an NILD educational therapist she worked as a teacher. Her qualifications include a B.Ed. in the Intermediate and Senior phases, majoring in English, Afrikaans and Psychology, as well as an Advanced Diploma in Inclusive Education. Her desire to help students who are falling behind led her to train as an Educational Therapist with the National Institute for Learning Development in South Africa (NILD-SA).
Olive feels blessed to be part of the organization, saying that it feels like she is part of a family. Olive says, ‘It feels like I’m finally making a difference.’
Belinda Button
GAUTENG
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Belinda completed her first three years of her Higher Diploma in Education at Pietermaritzburg Teacher’s Training College and completed her final year at Edgewood College of Education in 1988. In 2007 & 2008 she completed a Certificate course on Inclusive Education (Barriers to Learning) through Unisa. In 2009 she started exclusively teaching Remedial children.
It was through watching one of her own children struggling on a daily basis in the school system that motivated Belinda to embrace different ways of teaching. It became her mission to help as many children as she was able to, to be able to leave school feeling empowered, as opposed to ‘stupid and inadequate’. In early 2017, in her quest to find out more ways to help children who learn differently to succeed, she came across NILD Educational Therapy. This was the beginning of one of the most exciting journeys of her life.
Belinda is now a Level III trained therapist and is excited, and expectant, to see just how many lives are changed through this unbelievably sound and theoretically based therapy. She has recently become actively involved in the Kwa-Zulu Natal Midlands Area Support Group and is currently a member of the NILD-SA Professional Support Team.