Committed to
Community
You Are Invited
Volunteer
Growing Up Africa welcomes Volunteers. If you have a passion for change and an interest in people, we would love for you to join our team.
Intern
Growing Up Africa’s projects provide learning and entrepreneurial opportunities for university students from all over the world. The organization’s projects have involved students from Cornell University, Pratt Institute, WITS University, and the University of Johannesburg.
Donate
Growing Up Africa’s success would not be possible without your support. We rely on your sponsorship of materials, equipment, technical skills, and more. It is through collaboration we make this possible.
Community Outreach
Programmes
Happy Homes Pre-School
Mpumalanga, South Africa
Growing Up Africa launched an initiative at the Happy Homes Preschool to improve early childhood education and overcome lackluster development in the community on the outskirts of the Sabi Sands, South Africa. The initiative included critical site improvements such as bringing a water source to the school, providing a fully equipped kitchen, and starting a garden and feeding program whose surplus crops are sold to the village community as a source of revenue for the school.
The students were supplied their very own school uniforms. The organization also built a “boma” enclosure around the school’s first shack classroom in order to preserve and explain the school’s evolution from its humble beginnings to what it has become today.
Growing Up Africa also built and furnished an “eco-classroom” with a curriculum developed by the Princeton University Zoology Department and the Cornell University Ornithology Lab. The curriculum graphics were designed by students from the Parsons School of Design in New York City.
Early Childhood Development & Training Facility
Early Childhood Development & Training Facility
Early Childhood Development
& Training Centre
Cosmo City, South Africa
The Early Childhood Development & Training Center houses a training facility and classrooms for eighty children. Communal programs make up the heart of Thingo Kids curriculum and they are supported by an outdoor dining space, play areas, and garden pods. The communal spaces are angled to open up to views of the Cosmo City conservation zone.
The school is a product of a two year program orchestrated by Cornell University Sustainable Design Group, an interdisciplinary student-led organization at Cornell University. With the help of academic advisors and industry professionals, students executed the project after participating in comprehensive research and design studio. Strong emphasis was placed on sustainable passive technologies to decrease energy dependency. Twenty-eight student volunteers traveled from seventeen countries to South Africa to construct the school alongside local laborers from the Cosmo City neighborhood.
Deborah Terhune of Growing Up Africa acted as the project’s International Business Liaison. In this advisory capacity, she worked with the Cornell students to secure local technical professionals, develop marketing and communication strategies, and to negotiate with suppliers for the required materials to complete the project. The project was completed in partnership with Cornell University Sustainable Design, Education Africa, Play-With-A-Purpose, Basil Read Development, and the City of Johannesburg.
Devland Adopt-a-Highway Project
Victors Vegetable Garden at
Happy Homes Pre School
Victors Vegetable Garden partners with Happy Homes Pre School
Singita Sabi Sands sponsors Victors Vegetable Garden
Happy Homes Pre School Students
Victors Vegetable Garden partners with Happy Homes Pre School