This year we are humbled to back an impact project designed by our colleague, Nelita from the accounting team. Nelita founded UK2SA, South African grassroots organization to give kids living in tough circumstances in Cape Town access to experiences in the natural world which they are excluded from in their everyday lives.
Born and raised in South Africa, Nelita knows from personal experience what growing up in poverty is like. Now determined to make a difference, she set up UK2SA to help kids back in her home country.
“These kids have little or no opportunity to get to school, they lack the basics and constantly live in survival mode – getting out into nature just isn’t possible for them,” Nelita says. “But every child has the capacity to do something amazing, every child deserves the chance to just be a kid, to spend time in nature and let their imaginations soar.”
UK2SA has now taken six different groups of kids being raised in informal settlements outside Cape Town to different natural areas as well as providing emotional support, sensory feedback lessons, healthy meals and Vivobarefoot footwear. From the Helderberg Nature Reserve and Ana Beulah Farm to Camps Bay Beach, or a hike up Chapmans Peak Manganese Mines, the trips are created to be fun as well as educational.
What the kids say:
Thandi - “Thank you so much, this feels like an adventure!”
Khanya – “My favourite part was feeding the animals, one day I want to have a farm with chickens, horses and sheep.”
Lethitha - “I live on the other side of this mountain and never knew there was all this on this side.”
In December 2020, with the added pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, funds raised by Vivobarefoot employees also provided food packages for 3,355 people in this community.
We continue our support for UK2SA. With the launch of our Wild Human retreats in the U.K. this spring, each ticket sold also supports one child being included on UK2SA’s access to nature programme, including healthy meals and shoes.
Click here to find out more about our Wild Human retreats.
