In the Christmas story, three wise men followed a star. In a contemporary story of hope, an H lights up the night in a corner of Mitchell’s Plain, a beacon guiding young people to the community and social enterprise hub of RLabs in Cape Town.
“When I couldn’t study to be a chef, I felt directionless,” says 32-year-old Melanie Beukes de Wet. But a decade on, the founder and CEO of the BDW Group has three successful businesses, the first started during the pandemic.
RLabs (Reconstructed Living Labs) gave her the leadership training and startup funding to launch her own company, whose services and feeding scheme benefit the community. “[RLabs co-founder] Marlon Parker always encouraged us to ‘find the opportunity in the chaos’ and start our own businesses,” she said in an interview at the RLabs Westridge hub.
On Wednesday morning, students, entrepreneurs, and teams of developers were on laptops, in training, in meetings, or in the café at the hub. Dion Cupido artworks and many more brighten the airy building, where the ethos of “making hope contagious” feels tangible.
RLabs House next door is an art gallery that celebrates local emerging artists on First Thursdays as well as being a popular Airbnb, the first in Mitchell’s Plain. Street art by Falko Fantastic enhances the creativity, while a food garden is another sign of rejuvenation in the area.
The Joburg central business district is developing its own tech, arts and culture hub at 44 Main Street, where RLabs will be one of the anchor tenants said Maeve Halpin of the Anglo American Foundation, one of its funders.
RLabs, the Faranani Infrastructure Development project, and Read & Play At Home are among the programmes supported by independent philanthropists, including comedian Trevor Noah. The 40-plus members of the Independent Philanthropy Association of South Africa (Ipasa) are responsive to what communities need, notes the annual review released last month.
Shalane Yuen, founding MD of the Trevor Noah Foundation, said: “We‘re listening to communities and creating trust: our programme design is based on consultation and feedback. Trevor is a good symbol of creating the space to listen, and he models that as well.
“We are not a charity. We are a partnership and have a collaborative mindset… We don’t want to create dependency,” she said, noting that the foundation was shifting into a phase of sustainability.
The new school hall they helped build in Ivory Park — one of 19 schools with which the foundation works in Braamfischerville, Soweto, Eldorado Park and Ivory Park — shows how this can work. “For the first time this month the matrics wrote their exams in their own school hall. The hall is meant to be a catalyst towards being self-sustaining” as it can be hired out for birthdays or weddings, said Yuen.
The Faranani Infrastructure Development project (FID), supported by the Trevor Noah Foundation, is guided by community leaders and officials through weekly steering committee meetings. Among its priorities are refurbishing schools and building infrastructure, training young people in construction and life skills to make them employable and strengthening their mental health.
Instead of getting a commercial contractor, the foundation chose YouthBuild South Africa as their partner. Executive director Oupa Tshabalala was already involved in infrastructure improvement in communities when he met Noah and their values aligned.
YouthBuild has trained about 300 young people through FID – 50% are women, and they needed a grade 9 certificate – many of whom are now employed or have their own businesses. “At the end, they get a literal toolbox; the skills stay local, and schools can use them for ongoing repairs.”
Through its Khulani Nathi Innovation Fund, the foundation also supports “incredible projects with unrestricted three-year funding and do not dictate how it is spent,” she said.
Partnerships are a common theme in Ipasa-funded programmes. Jabu Mthembu-Dlamini, the Young Children manager for the Do More Foundation, said: “We play a backbone role in [coordination of partners] based on the needs of the community.”
They work in the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, North West, and the Western Cape. For example, they support more than 4,000 children in nearly 100 early childhood development (ECD) centres in Worcester and Zwelethemba in the Western Cape, said the field coordinator Jo-Anne Gordon.
“Early childhood development cannot only be within the walls of ECD centres, so we’re training facilitators to work with parents,” said Mthembu-Dlamini.
The Read & Play At Home initiative works with parents to encourage reading. “They go home with three books and build their own bookshelf. We know some parents cannot read, and we have books with no words that encourage storytelling.”
The sharing of knowledge and strengthening of dignity is another common theme among Ipasa’s programmes. Beukes de Wet, for instance, gave a talk to former convicts on how to start their own businesses as they often struggle to get jobs.
Her second business, started under the RLabs ReCha (recycling champions) banner, allows her to pay microwaste pickers a dignified wage, alleviates poverty, and reduces crime, she said. “Recycling ignited a passion in me, and it helps to clean the environment.”
The RLabs Agritech garden demonstrates how an environment can be transformed from a windswept, sandy patch of weeds to a flourishing orchard and vegetable garden in 15 months
One section is under shade cloth, while another, with citrus trees and lavender to attract bees, is unprotected. “We have volunteers popping up that we never planted,” he says, plucking a cherry tomato.
“Here we can show people there is security in sustainable food,” says Lekay, who encourages ECDs to visit so he can “teach the upcoming generation” about growing food. “I was not in a good space before… and now I’ve found a new spirit.”
Working with young people is fulfilling, said Tshabalala of YouthBuild. “Every day we look forward to waking up and changing lives. They are gaining skills and pride in what they do, sparking hope in their communities.
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