Huntington Village
Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga
Huntington Village is situated within the greater Bushbuckridge area, Mpumalanga, and represents the largest concentration of poverty in South Africa, with 70% of the community being economically inactive.
Huntington has a population of 6 000 people, and lies on the border of the renowned Kruger National Park and Sabi Sand Nature Reserve.
In partnership with Lion Sands Private Game Reserve, we began our community development projects in 2002 through support to Henna Preschool, now a fully autonomous community school. Among other developments, additional classrooms were built, and a borehole was drilled for use by the children and teachers at the school, as well as in their vegetable gardens.
Subsequent and ongoing projects include:
- Securing clean fresh water, with the aim to respond effectively to the limited and insufficient access to water within the village;
- A rural Digital Learning Centre managed by the Good Work Foundation (GWF), the implementing partner, which provides open learning academy courses for pre-school learners through to matric, and a bridging academy for young adults in the community;
- An enterprise development program for local small business owners to assist them to become more employable.
Justicia B
Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga
Justicia B is a small village community within the greater Bushbuckridge-area of Mpumalanga.
Its population is just 3 000 – 5 000 people, most of whom immigrated from Mozambique due to extreme poverty and various other challenges. It is on the fence line of the renowned Sabi Sands Private Reserve.
Jabez Preschool is currently fully funded by MCF and managed by the community SGB and an MCF representative, with plans to fully hand over the management of the school to the community to run it independently.
We also drilled a borehole to cater for the fresh water needs of the school, its garden and the surrounding community.
Matlabas Village
Thabazimbi, Limpopo
We work in partnership with Marataba Luxury Lodges in the Limpopo province in an area surrounded by farms, where community members reside in farm quarters.
We support the only primary school called Heuningvley, located on Honingvlei Farm, which attracts children from surrounding farms. One of the farm quarters is called Matlabas Village, situated at the main gate to Marataba Safari Lodge, sharing a fence with the Marataba Conservation Camps. We work in partnership with Marakele National Park, their people & conservation team, and the Marataba Community & Conservation Foundation (MCCF).
There are about 100 to 200 people in the community, and their children walk about 50km to access education at the school.
Woodlands Community
Hwange Rural District
Woodlands Community, formerly a hunting concession under the Hwange Rural District Council in Matabeleland North province in Zimbabwe, houses 4 villages with a total 118 households and an estimated population of 1200 people. They were resettled on 12,600ha of land, mostly wilderness area, surrounded by Fuller Forest, Zambezi National Park and Stanley and Livingstone Boutique Hotel on the Victoria Falls Private Game Reserve – all in the world-renowned Victoria Falls.
There is one small school in Woodlands, Masuwe Primary School. More Community Foundation Zimbabwe, in partnership with Stanley & Livingstone Boutique Hotel, started its development programs to support the school and the community at large through community-led initiatives.
Cape Town’s Mfuleni Community
Cape Town
Cape Town’s Mfuleni township community was identified by us, in partnership with Cape Cadogan Boutique Hotel and More Quarters Hotel, as a community that needed additional developmental support. Here the Injongo Educare centre was selected as the focal school for support and development programs, which include after-school care for learners from neighbouring schools. The Mfuleni area has an unemployment rate of 70%.
