Chriszanne Janse van Vuuren (Support Centre for Land Change)

Chriszanne Janse van Vuuren is a rights activist at the Support Centre for Land Change (SCLC). Chriszanne studied LLB at Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, after which she started her career as a paralegal officer at a community-based advice office in Steytlerville. Her career choice was motivated by the strong desire to ensure access to justice for the poor, and to contribute to development in the rural Eastern Cape Karoo.

In 2007 she relocated to Graaff-Reinet to join the Support Centre for Land Change (formerly known as the Southern Cape Land Committee), an NGO supporting the land struggles of the rural poor. She started her career at the Support Centre for Land Change as a fieldworker supporting farmworkers, and later broadened her focus to include emerging farmers, women and youth. Today she is a programme manager overseeing two fieldworkers who support farmworkers and other vulnerable workers, emerging farmers, women, youth as well as the landless in rural and urban settlements.

Chriszanne is a strategic thinker with a very strong sense of justice, great attention to detail and well developed administrative skills. Her empathy with the vulnerable coupled with her positive outlook on life, has been an asset in her work within different communities.

Chriszanne is a delivery partner on the Phase 2 project 'Ilizwi Lenyaniso Lomhlaba.'