Kediemetse Moloeloe started the Thaba Nchu Gymnastics Club in the Free State in 2007. The Thaba Nchu Gymnastics Club nurtures raw talent in children from the ages of 6 to 17 and has produced a number of gold medalists over the years. Not only does Kediemetse produce star athletes at her gym, she also develops responsible citizens in her community.

LETCEE (Little Elephant Training Centre for Early Education) has spent the past 24 years training teachers in the Greytown area in Kwazulu Natal and provide a number of services to communities to support families and Early Child Development centres.

The Pebbles Project is an organization that works with Farmworker Communities in the Cape Winelands areas, helping the children and families of farmworkers to reach their full potential through a wide range of services and educational support programs.

For more information: www.pebblesproject.co.za

The Kliptown Youth Program was started by a group of 20 young people from Kliptown, Gauteng in 2007 with the aim of providing educational support to the youth of the area. With no clinics or schools and few basic services in the immediate area, KYP has given children from Kliptown the opportunity to excel with a variety of after-school programmes and activities.

For more information: www.kliptownyouthprogram.org.za

Buhle Sithela is the founder of the Khayelitsha Bin Cleaning and Cinema Project in Khayelitsha. The inspiration behind the project was wanting to do something that would benefit his community. Buhle cleans bins every Friday for a small fee per month and also works as an intern at the Isivivana centre.

Sipho Mangesi, a qualified pilot, uses his own for groups of learners in the Eastern Cape to experience the joys of air travel. Since 2013 he has aimed to teach learners about career opportunities in aviation and motivate young people in disadvantaged communities.

Waves For Change provides a child-friendly mental health service to at-risk youth living in unstable communities. Through access to safe spaces, caring mentors, and a provision of weekly Surf Therapy sessions, W4C gives children skills to cope with stress, regulate behaviour, build healing relationships, and make positive life choices.

For more information: www.waves-for-change.org

The Lunchbox Fund aims to see that no child goes hungry in the classroom by providing school-day meals for learners at schools in communities where domestic food security is an issue. You can’t teach a hungry child, as malnutrition affects one’s ability to learn and develop, which prompted the organisation to ensure the nutritious meals reach those learners who need them most. Improved school attendance and better academic results are just some of the benefits the organisation brings to the thousands of learners it feeds every day.

For more information: thelunchboxfund.org

Andries Douglas is a policeman and martial arts instructor who has been teaching karate, kobudo and self-defense to children and teenagers living on farms in remote rural areas of the Western Cape. He teaches them karate for free, and in exchange they must read a book. He calls it the “Reading for Life” programme and he credits his wife Eugenie with the idea.

Kurt Minaar and Mavo Solomon are maths teachers who go above and beyond to invest in their communities. Mavo, a trained engineer, left Johannesburg in 2014 where he was working as an Energy Analyst for Eskom. He now spends his days teaching Mathematics and Physical Science voluntarily to matric learners in Mlungisi Township, Queenstown – his hometown. Kurt has been teaching grade 8 learners at the Ebon Donges High School in Kraaifontein, Cape Town. for the past 8 years. He uses alternative ways of teaching Maths to help grasp their attention. Kurt is also a hip hop dancer and has competed internationally. Kurt’s greater vision is to develop a revised curriculum with the department of education that caters for the needs of all types of learning categories.