It has been a fantastic and productive start to the school year at iKhaya le Themba! In fact, with so many highlights, it’s been a challenge putting it all down. Below is a summary of what has kept the iKhaya staff, children, parents, and volunteers busy these past five months.

A Fresh Intake of Grade 1s

We welcomed 30 new and excited Grade 1 learners to our after-school educare program this year. They have settled in quickly to our afternoon routine, made new friends, and grown our numbers to 163 primary school children who call iKhaya their “Home of Hope!” We are grateful to be able to offer them a safe space to be, grow, play and learn until they spread their wings and leave us at the end of their Grade 7 year.

Life Skills For All

Our iKhaya kids have been enriched by many fantastic learning opportunities this year, including our happy, healthy and strong Grades 5, 6, and 7 children enrolled in self-defence lessons with a professional boxer. These lessons helped them with physical fitness, self-defence skills and taught them the values of respect, resilience, and hard work.

New Woodwork program

Two Christian Life Camps Bay Church volunteers launched a new woodwork program with 15 of our Grades 1 to 7 kids. Karl and Mike visit iKhaya every Thursday from 4:00 to 5:00 PM, teaching them how to make their own wooden pencil/storage boxes. The children are learning many new skills, from working with hammers and sanding to following basic instructions while they build and complete their project with great concentration and joy!

College of Magic

We were thrilled to see two more iKhaya learners added to the College of Magic scholarship. They join four other iKhaya children attending the Magic Course every Saturday from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, where they are learning juggling, card tricks, and life skills.

Annual Talent Show

Beyond academics, the children had a fantastic time preparing for our annual Let Your Light Shine talent show, which we hosted in April. Our children worked hard practising their particular performance, whether modelling, drum majorettes, a drama performance, poetry reading, or singing songs with the choir.

iKhaya’s First soccer match

We cheered on our iKhaya boys at their first official football match! Our three teams played against Ithemba Langomso Academy from Mfuleni at the Hout Bay UC sports field. Our under-10 boys lost 5-1, under-11 boys won 5-2, and the under-14 boys won 8-3. This event was a proud moment for our dedicated Soccer Coach, Lunathi and the players, who put in extra effort to prepare for the big day.

Coach Lunathi with a few of our soccer players in their new football uniforms.

Another Successful Cape Cycle Tour

Our fabulous team of 21 iKhaya Charity Group Cyclists cycled 109 km around the Cape Peninsula in March this year to raise over R64,000 towards our Soccer program. This means that Coach Lunathi can now invest in additional sports equipment and offer fitness and soccer skills training to our iKhaya girls and boys twice a week for the rest of the year.

We are grateful to our 2025 Cape Town Cycle Tour sponsors, City Sightseeing Cape Town and Christian Life Camps Bay for making this fundraising event possible.

iKhaya’s Charity Group Cyclists from the 2025 Cape Town Cycle Tour.

Grade 8 Application Support

Our community worker, Nomvula, has diligently worked with our Grade 7 parents, supporting them with their children’s 2026 high school applications. Parents were guided step by step, using our computers, Wi-Fi, and photocopy machine, which made the process much easier. This support ensured that every iKhaya Grade 7 learner could complete their application and prepare for the next chapter of their education.

Grade 7 Leadership Program

We launched our new Grade 7 Leadership Program, assigning our more senior learners roles in several areas. Their rotating leadership responsibilities include:

Facilitating reading circle games for younger children
Assisting with homework and supporting Bible lessons
Organising library activities, events, and classroom decorations
Helping serve meals
Welcoming guests and acting as role models and ambassadors for iKhaya le Themba

Literacy and Homework Support

The Homework Lab has been a hive of industry, from reading and artmaking to copious pages of homework completed. What a blessing it has been to witness so many of our students engaging in their first steps of literacy using the iKhaya library. The children love stepping into other worlds filled with adventures and fascinating characters, all found in the pages of a well-loved book. For the youngest ones who are still learning their letters, books offer a treasure trove of pictures and opportunities to build vocabulary.

Volunteering

Volunteering at iKhaya Le Themba is a life-changing experience for our kids and volunteers. Since January, iKhaya has welcomed volunteers from the Netherlands, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. They assist in the kitchen, Homework Lab (with Maths, English and Life Skills homework), reading corner, and playground, joining our kids in their drawing, colouring-in, puzzle building and fun outdoor activities. They help us create a safe and loving space where our children can grow, learn and thrive.

We have also had wonderful support from local volunteers who have donated their time, skills and resources to help us with extra occupational therapy support for our children, fundraising, property maintenance, gardening, and so much more!

Facility Improvements

New Life for our Garden of Hope

IKhaya has a new borehole! With the help of skilled and generous volunteers, Theo and Thibaud, who spent the weekend with Phila digging, repairing and laying irrigation pipes, we have been able to connect our irrigation system, pump and Jojo tanks to the borehole.

Under Phila’s and Nomvula’s supervision, several of our parents assisted with clearing our vegetable garden in preparation for planting all the fresh seedlings kindly donated by Western Cape Seedlings in Phillipi.

We can now water our Garden of Hope regularly and anticipate a fresh and consistent supply of home-grown veggies for our chef, Noma, to prepare and for Nomvula to offer our parents when their home pantries are empty.

Some of the iKhaya moms planting seedlings in our revived vegetable garden.

Our Grades 4s and 7s have been allocated a section of the garden as one of their after-school projects. Three Grade 8 learners from Hout Bay International School visited us for their community service with donations of seedlings. Our Grade 4s had a wonderful time with them planting spring onions, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes and pumpkin seedlings, and companion flowers for the garden.

We also collected seven compost bins donated by the Western Cape Urban Waste Management depot to start iKhaya’s composting journey.

Sanele (Project Manager, pictured left) and Phila (Property Manager) with the seven compost bins to be used for composting at iKhaya.

School Partnerships

Sanele and the team hosted five of the seven principals from the surrounding primary schools to introduce them to our work at iKhaya le Themba, and form new educational partnerships. The day was made special by beautiful performances from the children, a warm welcome for the principals, and heartfelt speeches from the iKhaya staff and principals.

IKhaya is now on the priority list for donations of extra school supplies from Kronendal Primary School and has joined the Brighter Future Program at Disa Primary School. This inspiring program encourages children to do good in their communities, show kindness, and grow in service and leadership. The groups of learners who come to iKhaya help serve food, read with the younger children, facilitate iKhaya Circle Group games, and pack books away in the library.

Team Training

Knowing our ABCS

The iKhaya staff had the privilege of completing our training under the Asset-Based Community-Led Development (ABCD) Program. We focused on organisational development, working together as a team to shape our 2025 plan and a five-year vision for iKhaya le Themba. Thanks to the Adonis Musati Organisation for making this training possible.

Mental Health Awareness workshop

The team also attended a Mental Health Awareness Workshop, facilitated by two experienced social workers, Luzaan and Leonora, from Cape Mental Health. Their interactive presentation covered topics such as understanding mental health, offering mental health support, and recommendations for encouraging mental health and well-being.

Early learning and foundation phase conference

Sanele was thrilled to be able to attend the Early Learning and Foundation Phase Conference in Cape Town in May this year. He had the following to share from his experience.

“What a great honour it was to be amongst doctors, professors, psychologists, heads of education departments, CEOs, amazing teachers (both active and retired), practitioners, principals, and directors from different organisations across all 9 provinces of South Africa.

“Over the two days of the conference, we shared ideas, challenges, experiences, and solutions on many important topics in education. We spoke about exciting, engaging, and fun curriculum development ideas in literacy and numeracy, activities, coding, robotics, and using technology to keep up with the times. It was all about learning from each other and becoming better, so we can go back to our organisations and make a real difference.

“It was also a great space for networking, building connections, and exploring possible partnerships and support in the future.”

Sanele at the 2025 Early Learning and Foundation Phase Conference.

So Much More to Come in 2025

It’s exciting to think of what the rest of the year holds for the iKhaya kids and broader family! None of our work would be possible without the support of our volunteers, regular sponsors, generous donors, supportive partners and friends. Thanks for believing in iKhaya le Themba, and please continue to do so as we sow into the lives, futures and families of 163 amazing children from Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay.

For more information on how to support our wonderful Home of Hope, please email team@ikhayalethemba.org.za.

2025 Updates: The iKhaya le Themba Project