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Our work in South Africa

One shared commitment.

Our work in South Africa is centred around two extraordinary communities, each with a remarkable person at its heart.

In very different landscapes — from the bushveld on the edge of Pretoria to the vast Karoo — Africa’s Gift is working alongside local leaders who are already investing their time, energy and vision in the people around them.

Our role is to listen, learn and contribute practical ideas and partnerships that can help their work flourish.

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A keyhole garden in South Africa
Keyhole gardenSouth Africa
Dinokeng Game Reserve near Hammanskraal
Dinokeng Game ReserveHammanskraal, Pretoria
Dinokeng and Hammanskraal

A vision for people and place.

In the Dinokeng Game Reserve, on the edge of Pretoria, Charl Pretorius has spent years turning a vision into reality.

Charl helped create Kwalata Lodge and, alongside others, played a part in establishing a free-roaming Big Five game reserve. But his vision extends beyond conservation and tourism. The communities around Hammanskraal face significant challenges, and Charl has committed himself to helping create new opportunities for the people who live there.

Africa’s Gift has joined Charl in this work. Together with staff and students from Sheffield Hallam University, we have worked on social care and community uplift projects, exploring practical ways to support people and strengthen local initiatives.

The Eco Cook Bag

A simple idea, and where it could lead.

One of the ideas we have introduced is the Eco Cook Bag — a simple heat-retention cooking technology that allows food to continue cooking after it has been brought to temperature.

We have introduced community-sized bags at a wonderful care home on the edge of the Hammanskraal settlement, exploring how this simple technology can help make cooking more efficient while reducing the time and fuel required.

But we are already looking further ahead. Africa’s Gift and Charl are exploring whether Eco Cook Bags could eventually be fabricated locally, using locally grown hemp. That could turn a simple cooking technology into something more: an opportunity for local production, skills and enterprise.

About Eco Cook Bags
Community-sized Eco Cook Bags
Community-sized bagsHammanskraal care home
The Karoo, Free State
KhoiSan ConservancyThe Karoo, Free State
The Karoo

A community rooted in nature and heritage.

Around 50 kilometres south of Colesberg, in the Karoo of South Africa’s Free State, another remarkable community is taking shape.

At its centre is a farmer known as PC, who has created a nature reserve celebrating the culture and heritage of the Khoi and San people. The KhoiSan Conservancy provides employment for descendants of these historically persecuted communities and has developed a remarkable environment where people can encounter rare wildlife and birds while learning about the area’s cultural heritage.

But the work extends beyond the reserve. Its outreach programmes in nearby Hanover are creating practical opportunities within the wider community. A honey programme and an innovative litter-for-food initiative are helping to address local needs while encouraging people to care for their environment.

Africa’s Gift is privileged to be working alongside PC as this work develops.

In development

Creating a safe haven for women.

One of our current areas of collaboration is the creation of a safe haven for women in the community.

Africa’s Gift is exploring potential funding opportunities, including with Sheffield Hallam University, to help turn this vision into reality.

It is an example of the way we work: starting with a local vision, listening to the people involved and then exploring how partnerships, knowledge and resources can help make that vision possible.

A safe haven for women in the community
A safe haven for womenHanover, Karoo
Two people holding the plant fibres used to insulate Eco Cook Bags
Making the bagsThe fibres that insulate them
Learning through doing

Not just using the bags — making them.

The Eco Cook Bag has also found its way into the local community here.

We introduced bags to a local kindergarten and recently held a cooking class and fabrication workshop, giving people the opportunity not simply to use the technology but to understand how the bags can be made.

For Africa’s Gift, that distinction matters. We want to share ideas in ways that can be understood, adapted and, wherever possible, owned locally.

Partnership in action

Listen first. Work together. Find practical solutions.

The two South African projects are very different, but they share something important: they began with people who were already making a difference.

Charl and PC each have a deep commitment to their communities and a vision for what is possible. Africa’s Gift brings ideas, experience and connections — including links with universities and other partners — to support that existing local leadership.

Whether it is an Eco Cook Bag, a community care project, sustainable local production, a safe haven for women or a programme connecting environmental care with food security, the starting point is always the same. We believe lasting change is most powerful when it grows from within a community.

Be part of the journey
Partnership in action in South Africa
Partnership in actionSouth Africa

Help this work keep growing.

Every donation funds the soil, water, growing and cooking work in Lesotho, South Africa and Uganda — delivered by volunteers, with the communities that run each project.