We help communities to embrace diversity and overcome prejudice based on race, sex, class and ability
PDT is honoured to have as champions key pioneers in anti-bias work in South Africa and internationally, Thikam Pillay and Babette Brown.
Babette Brown is the Coordinator of Persona Doll Training United Kingdom, and the founder of the Early Years Trainers Anti-Racist Network, launched in 1986. She is a recipient of the Guardian ‘Jerwood’ award for charity work, and remains an active voice in the anti-bias and anti-racism movement. She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1931. In 1963, she and her family went into exile in the United Kingdom during the state of emergency declared after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960. As a South African who had experienced first-hand the effects of racism and apartheid, Babette was shocked to discover that racism, sexism, and classism were deeply embedded in the British education system and broader society. This awoke a lifelong interest in anti-bias work to tackle the roots of prejudice and discrimination in society. In 1985, she launched the Early Years Trainers Anti-Racist Network, and she remains a strong advocate in the anti-racism movement in the United Kingdom. Babette is a writer on race and diversity, and has published several books, including Unlearning Discrimination in the Early Years and Combatting Discrimination: Persona Dolls in Action.