Thanda After-School knows that by giving the next generation the tools they need to cope with and overcome the daily traumas they face, local communities can discover opportunities and find the means to triumph over hardships like poverty, disease, and inadequate education.

Because of a myriad of social, economic, and educational reasons, youth who finish high school in rural South Africa have few opportunities. As an integral part of the local community, Thanda’s staff members work to develop solutions with students who have finished high school and other members of the community.

These programs focus on: Poverty alleviation Household vegetable gardening Entrprenuership Health and nutrition information Access to social grants Childcare and parenting HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment referral Correspondence university and tertiary education Life Skills The Thanda Library and Community Center is currently being built. It is a center full of information and resources that are directly accessible to this rural community. We realized how important an information center would be to the local community in Umtwalume when we asked the children at Thanda what they thought their community needed the most and the children said their community would benefit most from a library – a place where people of all ages could go to help themselves. Thanda’s library houses books for all reading levels. The library is a place where community members and children can come to get essential information on resources such as scholarships, correspondence university, and business planning. We offer story time to promote reading from a young age, and community members can also participate in recording their local community history, since much of it has been passed down orally for generations. Thanda’s library also offers workshops on health, agriculture, nutrition, childcare, and life skills.

“I learn how to share my ideas with my neighbours. We meet together and we talk about things that can raise our standard of living. We like Thanda a lot.” – Community member “We thank Thanda for empowering us by giving us gardening skills, business skills, health education, and give us seedlings. Now if I want to cook I go to the garden.” – Community member

The Thanda Community Center is where Thanda’s staff work to develop innovative after-school programs and provide support for people in the local community. Grandmothers come to get information on government grants, children can get a meal from the feeding center, pregnant teens attend support group meetings, and Thanda’s staff train people from other organizations to run similar programs in their own communities throughout South Africa.

“We work with this soil hand-in-hand. This soil will give us what we need. We can just expand what we have.”
- Twin Doyisa, Thanda staff member