MEET
THE
TEAM
Nina Roots
CEO and Co Founder
Nina is a CEO, Project Manager and one of our original founders. She studied at De Montfort University in Leicester and graduated with a degree in Marketing & Business. Going on to study sustainability and child development at the SDG Academy. Nina spends a lot of time at the projects she supports in Malawi. She is incredibly hard-working and inspires all around her. Her selflessness and her determination have enabled her to really change lives in Malawi.
Nina got involved with Tilinanu Orphanage in 2009 and is a Trustee. She developed the idea of using Love Specs as a fundraising platform for Love Support Unite Africa Foundation. She and her sister Alice Pulford have grown the charity to where it is now.
Nina is inspired by the life-changing possibilities of permaculture and sustainability.
Alice Pulford
CEO and Founder
Alice is a CEO, Project Manager and one of our original founders. She studied at Liverpool University and graduated with a degree in Child Development. Alice is the founder and also a Trustee of Tilinanu Orphanage.
She’s an inspiration to so many people and has incredible energy and vision. She started Tilinanu Orphanage with Mercy Mkandawire in 2009 when she was only 19.
Today Alice also works as a CEO for Love Support Unite Africa Foundation and helped create and develop the charities fundraising tool Love Specs.
Her work and commitment has been widely recognized. In 2015 Alice was named Britain’s Best Volunteer by the Small Charities Coalition and in 2016 Alice, Nina and Gayle were named as the latest ‘Points of Light’ by UK Prime Minister David Cameron. She has also won the Margarette Golding Award of the Inner Wheel.
Alice is passionate about the power of education to help change lives.
Gayle Berry
TRUSTEE AND FOUNDER MOTHER INFANT HEALTH PROGRAMME
Gayle originally joined Love Support Unite as a volunteer to teach the importance of nurturing care to staff in baby orphanages. The project was a success and so it was expanded to the community to reach the most vulnerable mothers and babies with very limited access to education and health. Gayle trains Nurture Ambassadors in the community to share the benefits of the project and she is the co founder of the mother and infant health initiative. Gayle volunteers her time tirelessly to fundraise, and help guide Love Specs and Love Support Unite. Gayle regularly visits Malawi to make sure the projects are having a sustainable and measurable impact and she leads on the volunteer trip.
Gayle is a former lawyer and also the founder of Blossom & Berry, an international teacher training organisation with over 1000 teachers helped to teach the importance of nurturing touch in creating connected relationships between parents and babies.
Love Support Unite simply would not have reached as many people as it has today without her help.
Glyn Jelley
Trustee
Glyn is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years experience in the profession and is the Managing Director of Summit Chartered Accountants and Jellyfish Payroll Limited. It has always been his goal to be able to get to a position in life and his profession, to be able to give back and help others. He is a trustee of a carers charity and enjoys helping there, and when the opportunity arose to get involved with LSU, he couldn’t wait to do so too. He has two amazing daughters who take a keen interest in the charity, and the thought of his daughters being in the position of those that LSU help, hit a cord with him. He has taken part in fundraising events for the charity in the past and is looking for to being involved even more in the future.
Ben Kitching
Trustee
Ben is the tech support behind Love Support Unite, a self taught programmer, he loves to build something different.
Ben volunteers his time to build, host and maintain the Love Support Unite, Love Specs and Tilinanu web sites as well as supporting the LSU staff and their technology and so much more.
He loves to say yes to things others think isn’t possible! We call him Robin Hood, there to help, love and support for the last 8 years. The perfect fit!
Dominique Bowden
Volunteer Co-ordinator and founder of Early Years education programme
Dominique joined the team in 2010 volunteering her time selling Love Specs at festivals. She quickly became good friends of Nina, Alice and the LSU family. She studied at The University of Wales, Trinity Saint David and graduated with a degree in Primary Education with QTS, specialising in Early Years education. Her passion has always been to have a positive influence on the world, and teaching was the natural course. She was a primary school teacher for almost 10 years, but is now working for Love Support Unite and Love Specs.
Dominique has been lucky enough to travel and teach all around the world, including volunteering in Malawi with Love Support Unite in 2019. Whilst in Malawi, working alongside another teacher, they implemented an Early Years education programme. This involved training 80+ teachers and staff from all over Malawi, working alongside 4 other local charities, monitoring and supporting the 27 schools and supporting the hiring and training of staff that work in the preschools that LSU set up. Over 2000 children benefited from this education programme and the ripple effects of the teacher training will be seen for years to come.
Sophie-Larissa Houghton
Trustee and Love Specs Director
Sophie started working with Love Support Unite in 2016.
She came on board working as a fund raiser and brand ambassador. Hosting many events, localised and nation wide along side working on the live festival campaigns for Love Specs.
Sophie became a trustee of LSU and a director of Love Specs in 2019.
She works actively on the brand concept, content, live festival campaigns and amplification of brand sales via her networks. She is always looking for new ways to get the brand exposure and influential faces to partner with.
Sophie is really passionate about LSU and the impact they have over in Malawi. She is always trying to think of new ways to raise money and help wherever she can. She also is grateful for all amazing people LSU has brought into her life. Her life would not be the same without them. Everyone on the team has a heart of solid gold.
In her free time she enjoys woodland walks and playing frisbee with Merlin her collie dog.