Funding Our Primary School in South Africa

Hey everyone!

We are dropping into your inboxes today with a massive mix of wild weather updates, huge smiles, and a beautifully chaotic story of resilience from our primary school in Cape Town!

Winter has officially kicked in here in South Africa, and wow, it really brought the drama this time. We recently had a massive storm that sent a tree straight through our roof, causing flooding so severe we actually had to close the school doors. But thanks to some incredibly well-timed recent donations, we were able to jump right into action, pump the classrooms completely dry, and get a temporary patch over that roof to get our brilliant kids back to their desks!

While we are celebrating getting the school open again, it has left us facing a pretty crazy catch-22. To pull off those emergency storm repairs, we had to completely empty our stationery shop fund. We were supposed to go and restock all our school supplies last week, but with the emergency drainage draining our bank account instead, we had to cancel the trip. It is getting pretty urgent because our stock of everyday learning materials is running dangerously low!

Looking ahead, we have two massive things on our wish list to fully transform our school after this wild winter weather. First, we need to raise the funds to properly replace a large section of the roof so we can stay dry permanently. Second, once the roof is sorted, we want to give the whole school a joyful makeover! We are looking for funds to buy bright paint, and we would absolutely love for volunteers to come join us on the ground to pick up a paintbrush and help us bring this transformation to life.

Over the last fourteen years, this project has seen one hundred and eighty amazing donors come together to raise over thirty-four thousand dollars to keep this school thriving for our two hundred learners. Right now, out of all our incredible supporters, we don't currently have any regular monthly donors signed up on the books for this specific school fund.

Relying entirely on one-off emergency gifts makes it a bit of a rollercoaster when winter storms hit. Imagine if just a small handful of our past supporters felt able to set up a small regular gift of five or ten dollars a month. It would completely change the game, giving us a predictable heartbeat of funding to keep our stationery shelves permanently stocked and maintain our building without the constant stress of the next big storm. If a monthly gift isn't possible right now, no worries at all! You can still be an absolute superstar for free just by sharing our link, spreading our story, or helping us hunt for handy volunteers.

This brings us straight to a major save the date that we are incredibly excited about!

The GlobalGiving July Bonus Day is officially locked in for July fifteenth and sixteenth! During this campaign, any unique donation you make up to a hundred dollars will receive a fantastic matching boost from a generous bonus funding pot. It is the absolute best way to stretch your support further, help us refill our stationery fund, and get that roof permanently fixed before the next big rain.

We are so endlessly grateful for your quick support that helped us dry out the classrooms, and we can't wait to see what we achieve next together. Thank you for being such a bright light for our students!

Hi everyone,

I’m sitting here today with a heart that feels very full. If you could see the sun shining over our schools today, you’d understand why. We have reached a milestone we’ve been dreaming of for ten years, and it’s all thanks to the support of this community.

The Class of 2025: A 10-Year Journey In December, we experienced a moment of pure joy: our very first Grade 7 class graduated from our primary school! We have been with these children for a decade, watching them grow from wide-eyed little ones into skilled, confident young people. Seeing them move on to secondary school, fully equipped and ready to take on the world, is the ultimate proof that our impact is working.

At the same time, we celebrated four of our "little ones" graduating from our Siyakhula ECD centre. They didn't have far to travel—they’ve just moved right across to join our primary school family!

Fueling Potential: 186 Smiles Every Day Your donations continue to be the fuel behind our classrooms. This past term, we were able to fund our Breakfast Club for 140 children at the primary school, ensuring no child starts their lessons on an empty stomach. At our Educare centre, your support provided breakfast, fresh fruit, and lunch for all 46 of our children. It’s more than just food; it’s the energy they need to learn, play, and thrive.

Big Wins for Safety

The safety of our children is always our top priority. We are thrilled to share that in 2025, we successfully raised 300,000 ZAR to build a full perimeter safety fence around the primary school. It has completely changed the atmosphere—the children feel safe, and the school is finally a protected sanctuary.

At Siyakhula, we’ve also used recent funds to build a heavy-duty secure cage inside the centre. After a series of heartbreaking break-ins where we lost food and equipment, this cage is a game-changer. Our fridges, freezers, and computers are finally locked away safely. We’ve even replaced our metal taps with plastic to make the school less of a target for thieves.

Our Next Big Step: Securing Siyakhula

While the new fence at the primary school is a huge victory, we now need to bring that same level of security to Siyakhula. We’ve been working with Trelli-door, a leading security company, who were so moved by our mission that they’ve sourced off-cuts and donated materials to help us.

They’ve given us an incredible deal: $5,500 for a full security overhaul (originally quoted at over $14,000!). This is our big focus for 2026. Once Siyakhula is truly secure, we can finally begin our dream of turning the old classroom into a magical indoor/outdoor play space with astroturf and plants.

A Look Toward 2026 As we look at our 46 children at the ECD and 140 at the primary school, we are reminded that we aren't just running schools; we are building a village. We still have eight little ones from unemployed single-parent homes waiting for scholarships to join us at Siyakhula—for $40 a month $480 for a full year , we can get them off the street and into a classroom so I ask you onec again please help us raise these funds or even please share our project with your networks and together we can keep every child safe and in school 

Thank you for being part of this journey with us. Whether you’ve been here since the beginning or just joined us, you are changing lives in Cape Town.