GROOTBOS FOUNDATION

The Grootbos Foundation is dedicated to transforming communities and conserving the environment through the creation of sustainable livelihoods and active citizenship.

Serving the communities in and around Gansbaai, the Foundation aims to uplift the youth through sports development, develop sustainable livelihoods through enterprise development and education, and conserve the unique Cape Floral Kingdom, through a series of projects that support 13 out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The Football Foundation brings together children from different cultural groups to achieve social inclusion in gender, ethnicity, education and training, health, career development and life skills development. Their holistic approach to development through sport addresses various social issues and provides youth with the necessary tools to reach their full potential – personally, socially and in sport.

The Football Foundation programme was founded in 2008 to promote sports and social development in the Overberg region – an area with typically high unemployment rates and few educational, recreational and developmental resources and opportunities. The Foundation coaches reach more than 9 500 children from 16 different primary and high schools (age 6-19 years) in the Overberg region per year – sometimes providing the only sports coaching available in some of these low income communities.