Who we are

Dr Heidi Segal, together with Laura Singh, founded Outliers in 2014. Heidi has a PhD in Medical Microbiology and ran a postgraduate research group at the University of Cape Town. Since leaving UCT in 2009, she has developed programs to provide quality education in under-resourced communities. Heidi is proficient at building collaborations with like-minded individuals, encouraging them to share millions of rands worth of resources; a hallmark of Outliers operations. She believes that “every child in South Africa deserves quality education, not just to survive, but to break the poverty cycle and thrive”.

Toni-Lee Williams holds a Bachelors of Commerce degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from the University of Cape Town. At Outliers, she assists with marketing and communications, tutor training, fundraising, proposal writing, and donor engagement to sustain operations. She is responsible for coordinating logistics for data collection, compiling basic analysis reports and representing data graphically for inclusion in annual reports and reports to funders. She wants to ensure that all children have equal access to education, so that they can make choices beyond their personal circumstances towards a brighter future.

Vulisango manages the resources store room, receiving and distributing millions of rands worth of goods to support learning centres. He logs goods as they arrive and prepares allocations for learning centres based on individual requirements and requests. Vulisango assists with logistics for training sessions including technical support. As head of hospitality, he creates a welcoming environment for participants and oversees catering. In his spare time, you’ll find him with a paint brush in hand, creating inspiring works of art of his hometown in the Eastern Cape.

Sidney Botha has tutored in Nyanga for the past 10 years and is regarded as a leader in his community. He has in-depth knowledge of community-based education interventions. His role with Outliers is to engage with community stakeholders, particularly around food security and learner wellbeing. He liaises directly with community leaders to support testing of learners, collating of testing results, and training of new tutors. Sidney conducts in-person interviews with learners to provide narrative reports. His valuable on the ground experiences and insights informs our strategic approach, ensuring we remain adaptive and responsive.