Avrille Fonseca’s passion for working with children

Avrille is driven by her passion for working with children and making a difference in their lives. Her work, which includes coordinating fieldwork and data collection, plays a key role in JET’s mission to improve educational outcomes, especially in disadvantaged communities. She explains, “I’m passionate about working with children and contributing to making a change in their lives.”

Her expertise in coordinating projects extends across multiple stages of a research cycle. Avrille is responsible for managing various projects, from handling the budget to coordinating the final report. This level of responsibility highlights her role in ensuring that each project runs smoothly and meets its objectives.

Currently, Avrille is involved in projects such as Funda Wande, AASA, Lego, and ELOM. One of her highlights has been conducting training and quality assurance for fieldworkers in assessments like EGRA, EGMA, and MARKO-D in Polokwane. This work is critical to collecting accurate data and she collaborates with JET’s data unit to ensure smooth transitions from data collection to analysis. Her role in facilitating this collaboration strengthens JET’s ability to deliver evidence-based work.

She is particularly proud of JET’s JETStreaming project, which contributed to education research and provided employment opportunities for young graduates. This initiative reflects JET’s commitment to making meaningful change through education and youth empowerment.

Looking ahead to JET’s 2024-2026 strategy, Avrille commends JET for its flexible working hours and hybrid work arrangements, improving these would offer employees a better work-life balance. Internally, she also mentions the importance of updating the staff manual to reflect changes, as this will ensure that all JET staff are aware of and can benefit from the new policies. Her contributions, both to project coordination and organisational strategy, are essential to JET’s ongoing impact in the education sector.