Bongi Jele

Bongi's approach is simple and stubborn: be there every day. The organisation grew from an informal after-school space into a structured programme with volunteers, mentors and a child protection desk that follows cases through instead of handing them on.

She leads on the ground — recruiting and training volunteers, sitting with parents, keeping records, and calling on social workers, schools and the local municipality when a child needs more than the centre can give.

Her current focus is permanence: a community hall so programmes are not cancelled by rain, and a private office so social work can happen with dignity. Both are planned as non-structural builds because the property is held on lease.