How we make an impact

How we make an impact: our projects

Our focus is to address the causes of poverty and social inequality in KwaZulu-Natal. The crisis in our province results from:

Limited access to health services, education, and utilities especially potable water.
High levels of unemployment.
Income inequality.
Child-lead households and dependence on the elderly to care for the young being a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

We do this by:

Upliftment of youth by ensuring school attendance is maximised; education needs are supplemented and internship programmes for young people to obtain work experience thus helping them to find permanent employment.
Protection of women and children through programmes to address these issues.
Provision of health services.
Provision of disaster relief.

Projects 2024:

We provided school shoes to 1 200 underprivileged leaners helping to bring the cost of education down to their families.
We gave 400 young lady learners four month’s provision of sanitary pads enabling them to continue to attend school.
We assisted residents of a suburb in Tongaat, KZN, to clear rubble from a river, their only source of water, after a tornado ripped through their community devasting buildings and utility infrastructure.
We helped St Cecilia’s, an outstation of a parish in Pietermaritzburg, complete its church building proving a safe place for worship and meetings.
See link to Lenten Lens for our current exciting project Lenten Lens 2025, providing spectacles to underprivileged learners.

Who are we

To create a future where all are afforded the opportunity to thrive and be part of a better society.”

The iKhwezi Foundation is a non-profit company dedicated to uplifting and empowering those living on the periphery of society in the South African coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal and beyond, regardless of nationality, colour or creed. It forms the central element in the Catholic Archdiocese of Durban’s social upliftment programme.

Despite being the second largest regional economy in South Africa, the province still grapples with a myriad of crippling social and economic challenges, with millions in urban and, particularly, rural environments continuing to live in abject poverty.

In response, our mission is to provide care and relief for the needy, while actively protecting the environment.

We focus on the upliftment of education; the protection of women and children; healthcare to the destitute; and protection to the environment.

We partner with similar organisations to use existing structures as well as using the infrastructure that we have in our diocese.

Leadership

Archbishop Mandla Jwara

Mike Ronald - CA (SA)

Father Brett Williams

Ms Olivia Swaddling

Dr Thandeka Mbhele

WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT

A challenge faced by many Non-Profit Organisations in South Africa is a lack of infrastructure in rural areas. As our Foundation is linked to the Archdiocese of Durban, we enjoy access to the substantial infrastructure which has already been put in place by the Church in a wide range of mission areas across KwaZulu-Natal.

This ensures:

Access to freehold property with extended utilities
E ective on-site management through resident pastors or parish priests
Access to sound administrative systems already in place
Communities which are able to provide volunteer assistance to projects

This is a unique and extremely valuable advantage the Foundation enjoys in the execution of its projects and one which a ords donors the peace-of-mind that their invaluable contributions are managed, evaluated and measured ethically and in line with international standards and best practice principles.

How we make an impact