A dream born in a township
Thandolwethu began with a journey and a vision that refused to stay small.
In 2017, Mzi and Sbosh, two community leaders from Samora Machel township on the outskirts of Cape Town, travelled to Italy as part of an exchange programme. During their time there, they visited social cooperatives, cultural centres, and grassroots organisations, but one place stopped them in their tracks: the Loris Malaguzzi International Center in Reggio Emilia, a world-renowned hub for innovative early childhood education.
They came home inspired. And they came home with a plan.
The community, the need, the opportunity
Samora Machel is a township shaped by history. Once sparsely populated, it grew rapidly through urbanisation and the town planning policies of apartheid. Today, most residents are isiXhosa-speaking families living in a mix of brick homes and informal structures, where access to clean water, sanitation, and electricity remains a daily challenge, and quality childcare is not guaranteed.
Mzi, Sbosh, and Wendy, another person involved in the project, saw this gap clearly. They aren’t outsiders proposing solutions, they belong to the community. And they wanted to build something that belongs to it.
The vision: more than a school
The Thandolwethu Early Childhood Development Centre is designed to be more than a place where children are looked after. Inspired by the Reggio Emilia pedagogical approach, it’s a space where children learn through curiosity, creativity, and relationship, and where the environment itself becomes a teacher.
The centre is also envisioned as a social enterprise: rooted in community needs, offering high-quality early education, and creating meaningful, skilled employment for local residents. Economically sustainable by design, it’s built to last.
The school will open its doors in a building near the Samora Machel train station, a daily hub for hundreds of commuters, making it accessible to families from across the township.
Friends of Thandolwethu: here to make it happen
In 2018, the non-profit association Friends of Thandolwethu was founded to turn this vision into reality. We work on five key fronts:
- Training & qualifications: supporting project leaders in gaining the credentials needed to run an ECD centre;
- Pedagogical development: funding participation in Reggio Emilia-focused training and exchanges;
- Business planning: helping define and establish the entity that will manage the centre;
- Architecture & infrastructure: collaborating with professionals on the design and construction of the building, so that the community input can be incorporated in the architectural project;
- Fundraising: mobilising the resources that make all of it (and more) possible.
This is a story still being written, and you can be part of it.