The Gondwana Care Trust’s 2025 year commenced with its Trustees nurturing connections with two of the Trust’s supported community development and upliftment projects in Swakopmund’s Democratic Resettlement Community (DRC), namely the DRC Women’s Community Project and the Tangeni Shilongo Open Doors Education Centre (ODEC). By spending meaningful time with each project, Trustees had the opportunity to reconnect with project leaders and explore their learning, sustainability, and upcycling initiatives.
The DRC Women’s Community Project, steered by Ms Anja Rohwer, and Ms Manga as Head of Education, is a space for learning and empowerment in the heart of the DRC Settlement. The project’s Grow Together Pre-Primary School welcomes more than 100 children, features a soup kitchen, and provides upskilling and training opportunities to women in beading, sewing, and handcrafting jewellery and artifacts, sold in Gondwana lodge curio shops.
Focusing on environmental sustainability, small fruit and vegetable gardens are cultivated to complement their fresh produce needs. The project also recently received a donation of placemats from The Delight Swakopmund, which were ingeniously upcycled into beautiful handbags by the project’s skilled artisans.
The Tangeni Shilongo Open Doors Education Centre is located in Mondesa, just adjacent to the DRC Settlement. With a philosophy rooted in understanding the needs of the community, the education centre offers youth development programmes in sewing and leatherwork, scholarship opportunities, and supporting amenities such as a library, Information and Communication Technology Lab, and a kitchen, to its 275 enrolled learners and the surrounding community.
The centre is equipped with solar panels, a hydroponics system, and small vegetable gardens, integrating an understanding of environmental sustainability into learning from an early age.
For the Gondwana Care Trust, educational investment represents a strategic commitment to uplifting communities through learning opportunities that span both formal and informal settings. This involves investing resources—such as funding, expertise, and collaboration with local and or international partners—to develop and support educational programmes aligned with the Trust’s values of empowerment, sustainability, and community well-being.
Beneficiaries of the Back-to-School Christmas Bags project, an annual initiative of the Gondwana Care Trust, at the Tangeni Shilongo Centre.
Through collaborative efforts with community organisations similarly committed to social investment, the Trust can help establish and expand equitable access to resources, support services, and lifelong learning pathways within local communities. In doing so, holistic education serves not only as a social and environmental investment, but also as a unifying force.
When asked by one of the Trustees: “Why do you do it?” Ms Manga from the DRC Women’s Community Project responded: “For the love of our future leaders and for the love of our people, let me share all my experiences with them.”
Get involved with the Gondwana Care Trust: https://hubs.la/Q02QKCQD0
Author & Photos: Monique Tredoux