The Team

Anne Siroky

Anne is well known in Cape Town through the many projects she does to help the community. She runs a non-profit organization called The Future Factory, as well as a jazz dance academy, motivational speaking, teambuilding workshops and community projects throughout the Western Cape. Every day her projects reach thousands of children.

Anne was South Africa’s number one volleyball player, and after retiring, decided to share her skills with learners in the schools. After making enquiries, she discovered there was no sports program operating in any of the schools, so formed The Future Factory. This NPO started off in a couple of schools and has now grown without any outside funding, and operating only from Anne’s car and cell phone.

She now runs programs in over 30 schools in the Western Cape, focusing on Life Skills and Sports Development. She runs programs in indigenous games, teambuilding, HIV/AIDS, children with physical disabilities and holds the contract for holiday programs in Cape Town communities, focusing on keeping the youth entertained and off the streets. Other programs she is involved with include feeding programs and crèches in the Ottery community, volleyball coaching with SCAS, camp facilitation for the Novalis Institute, motivational speaking for many organizations, women’s groups and corporates, and a huge number of community projects with various townships.

She has also been responsible for bringing many international volunteers from around the world to share their skills with the Cape Town community, with her project winning the South African Student Travel Services Project of The Year Award in 2005. She also created her own jazz academy, teaching four nights a week.

Anne has hired over 20 South African coaches and fully trained them in sports coaching, enabling them to work in the schools as part of The Future Factory Sports Academy. She is very aware of what is happening in the South African communities, and recently spent the night under the bridge with the homeless as part of the radio station campaign to see what it was like. Since this she has begun working in a homeless shelter in Retreat as well.

She works seven days a week, with very little time to herself, and makes no money for herself from the work she does with The Future Factory. Yet she still always manages to donate funds to projects or families that need it.

She has worked with over 100 000 children in the last six months alone, and her work with children has been well recognized and is highly sought after. She teaches regular sports programs in four schools on a weekly basis and facilitates many more. She is the head facilitator for the Bambanani Beach Program over the summer months. As well as this, she is booked out for her children’s programs and motivational speaking throughout the Western Cape, and is the patron of the Masibambane Project.

Anne’s biggest challenge came in 2006, when she was diagnosed with cancer. Treatment followed the diagnosis, including a course of chemotherapy. Anne was bed ridden for over three months, a huge challenge for someone with such an active lifestyle. The treatment made her sick and came with a lot of other side effects. Throughout this time, she remained ever positive, and follow up treatments have shown the cancer is now cleared. She now speaks about her illness to audiences in order to help them through their own battles.

She was this year named as the Shoprite Checkers SABC2 Woman of the Year for Sport, Western Cape State Winner for the Old Mutual Sowetan SABC Community Builder of the Year and was a recipient of the Imvusa Foundation’s Community Spirit Award.

Anne's personal website: www.anneandtanya.com

Michael van Roodt

Tanya grew up in Kwinana, Western Australia, an area with one of the lowest socio-economic levels in Australia. She was told she would never get anywhere because of where she was from, and was determined to prove everyone wrong.

After graduating from Kwinana Senior High School in 1998, she went on to complete a Bachelor of Communications (Media Studies) at Edith Cowan University in Perth. She began working at the age of 13 at the Hub Soul Pattinson Chemist, and saved enough money for a trip to Europe after graduation. It was here that she got the travel bug.

In 2003, she travelled to New Hampshire, USA, to work at a summer camp for underprivileged and at risk children called Copper Cannon Outdoor Education Center. She later returned to the camp as the program co-ordinator for 2004 and 2005, responsible for camp programming, activity facilitation, staff training and supervision, camper recruitment, first aid and day-to-day running of the camp. This included activities such as hiking, out-trips, climbing wall, ropes course, teambuilding, arts and crafts, sports, special events, cookouts, campfires, archery and nature activities.

In the 2003-2004 ski season she worked at Whistler Blackcomb in Canada, the biggest ski resort in North America. She worked in the Guest Relations and Pass Administration departments.  

Tanya was placed on a volunteer placement with The Future Factory, South Africa, in 2005. She has now returned in 2006, 2007 and 2008, and spent over a year with in South Africa with TFF projects. She runs The Future Factory administration from Australia, taking care of publicity, volunteers, invoicing, program organisation and bookings.

Tanya is based in Australia, where the Dance 4 Africa program has begun. Starting as a one-off performance of a musical based on her life in Cape Town to raise money for The Future Factory, this program has now grown to involve the School Dance Academy, Performance Group, and adults and kids community classes. The children of Kwinana have learnt to dance Cape Town jazz, giving them something to do, improving self esteem and keeping them off the streets. The Dance 4 Africa dancers are now booked for many events, and have received great reviews of their performances.

Tanya was trained in Teambuilding and Motivation in America, and has worked on events and projects throughout the world. She has trained staff from over 15 countries in teambuilding processes, and runs workshops for children, teachers and corporates. These include teambuilding for at risk children in America, children with behavioural problems in Australia, and for Rock Challenge, Department of Cultural Services & Sports, Department of the Premier and South African Games in South Africa. While in South Africa, she instructs jazz dance with the Anne Siroky Jazz Academy. She has worked with over 120,000 children across the world.

She has travelled to 23 countries, and as The Future Factory International Director, co-ordinates TFF programs in Australia and Vietnam.

She won the 2008 Premier's Australia Day Award, 2007 Town of Kwinana Citizen of the Year and the 2007 Martin Waudby Memorial Award for Outstanding Community Leadership. She attended the 2008 Rotary Youth Leadership Award and was nominated in 2007 for a Pride of Australia medal in the categories of Role Model and Community Spirit. Tanya has been selected for the 2008-2009 SPARK Mentorship Program, the Australia Council's national mentoring program for young artists, supported by the Dance, Theatre and Community Partnerships sections.

Tanya's personal website: www.anneandtanya.com

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