Even Ground

UNAIDS estimates that to date, a staggering 14 million children have been orphaned by AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Even Ground strives to help families and communities break the cycles of poverty and inequality by providing support to community-based programs that offer high-quality education and care to young people in Africa. South Africa has the largest number of people living with HIV in the world and by 2025, it is estimated that 40% of South African adults will have died of the disease. In Uganda, HIV infections increased by 30% between 2005 and 2011. Two-thirds of all South African children live in extreme poverty. 35% of Uganda's population continues to suffer from hunger. Even Ground currently supports over 700 children ages 2-24 at one site in Uganda and three sites in South Africa, in some of the poorest communities in these countries. Even Ground's projects address issues of poverty, poor-quality education, limited access to healthcare, malnutrition, food insecurity, drugs, and broken family structures. Our projects work hand-in-hand with local organizations in each of these communities to ensure that support is sustainable, locally-appropriate, and organic to the community. Together, we are transforming young lives that will one day transform the world.

09/23/2026

Reshared from our partner Thanda:
“Youth flexing their creative muscles.”

Thanda's Grade 8+ skills programme is putting new skills into practice with pride. From building a cupboard from scratch in carpentry to turning fabric into fashion through their fashion design elective, learners are showing what they've mastered.
In early October, that work takes centre stage. Thanda is hosting a Performing Arts Festival as a tribute to Heritage Day, where children will showcase everything they've spent months learning: visual arts, beadwork, carpentry, poetry, drama, dance, singing, sewing, and fashion design.

Guardians will see firsthand what their children have built, made, written, and performed. This is the kind of long-term investment in young people that creates lasting change, proud to stand alongside Thanda in this work.

Visual Credit: Thanda

09/11/2026

Last week, our partner True North Vrygrond took part in training sessions introducing Project Lucky, an early childhood development programme developed by the Cape of Good Hope Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to ECD teachers in Vrygrond and Overcome Heights.

We see this partnership between True North and the Cape of Good Hope SPCA as a meaningful way to bring early childhood development support to the community, helping young children build empathy and respect for animals from an early age.

The sessions were structured around a simple idea: kindness is a skill, and it starts young. With the support of True North, teachers explored how to bring these lessons into everyday classroom moments, using stories, guided activities and animal-centred discussion to help children practise compassion and care for living things.

Visual Credit: True North

08/27/2026

In July, BRAVE Rock Girl held a two-Day Senior Girls Festival at Bertha House for 19 senior girls, supported by facilitators. This is part of BRAVE's 16 years of work with adolescent girls and young women in the Manenberg community in Cape Town, offering safe spaces, mentorship, and experiences that build confidence and resilience.

The two days were structured around a simple question, asked from both directions: who have I become, and what do I carry with me? Following their way of building a community of care, they explored the evolution of self through grounding circles, yoga and mindfulness, and creative mapping with the "My Island" exercise. The two days closed by going deeper into collective inspection of what they carry within themselves, through the "Bridge Exercise," clay sculpting, a wool appreciation bracelet ceremony, and time capsule letters written to their future selves.

And one participant reflected on how they found the two days: "It will influence the way we solve our problems, to think before we act and to use our coping skills in times of stress. We look at BRAVE like an individual in human form, someone who never gave up and stayed through until the very end."

It continues to be an honour for Even Ground to support BRAVE’s initiatives.

All Pictures’ Credit: Brave

08/13/2026

Cerebral palsy is one of the most common disabilities affecting children supported through Siyakwazi's Inclusion Programme, and it often calls for specialised, hands-on care. Their fieldworkers recently took part in an intensive refresher training led by Dani, Siyakwazi's physiotherapy consultant, focused on equipping the team with the skills to support children with more complex needs, particularly those with severe to profound disabilities.

The training covered positioning, movement, stretching, and handling techniques that fieldworkers can use directly during home visits. But the learning didn't stop with the fieldworkers. They, in turn, passed these skills on to guardians, so families could continue rehabilitation activities within their own homes, long after a visit ends.

This is what continuity of care looks like in practice: skills moving from physiotherapist to fieldworker to family, creating more opportunities for children to practise and grow, and helping ensure that progress made in therapy is carried forward, not lost.

About the pictures: Siyakwazi's physiotherapy consultant, Dani, during a refresher training session with the CP support team. (Credit: Siyakwazi)

07/30/2026

“A child's postcode should never decide their future.” Kgololo Academy, one of our partners based in Alexandra Township, has spent the last 10 years building a school around that belief.
In Alexandra, fewer than 30% of learners who complete matric achieve a Bachelor's Pass, the minimum requirement for university entry. Kgololo Academy exists in efforts to change that, not through short-term intervention, but through a model built for the long term.

Today, the school serves close to 150 learners across 1 to 7th Grade, who receive about more instructional time than many neighbouring schools, so every child is known well. A daily independent reading block builds confidence and a genuine love of books. Counsellors and social workers are on campus every week, and more than 50% of scholars currently receive that support at no cost to their families.

Attendance holds steady at 95%. Alumni are earning bursaries to some of the country's most competitive high schools, and some are choosing to come back, mentoring the scholars coming up behind them. Behind every one of those numbers is a child who was seen, supported, and given the time to grow into who they're becoming.

Read more and follow Kgololo Academy's journey at https://www.kgololoacademy.org/

Picture cred: Kgololo Academy

07/23/2026

BRAVE Rock Girl opened its story 16 years ago the way it has carried it ever since: creating safe spaces for girls to figure out who they are.

Founded by India Baird, BRAVE grew from a small group of girls into a movement of leadership, sisterhood, and advocacy, carried forward by the very girls it once served. Senior leaders who came through as participants went on to co-lead the organisation. That is not a small thing. Based in Manenberg, BRAVE has spent over a decade and a half showing up for girls, not as a programme to move through, but as a place to be seen, heard, and held. And we have seen that behind every year of this work is a girl who stayed in the room long enough to become someone who could hold the door open for the next one.

We learn from their board that "BRAVE remains committed to creating safe spaces and opportunities for girls in South Africa," and "the work of advocacy for girls' rights to continue and become more impactful is still tremendous." That's the throughline across everything BRAVE has built. Girls supported. Families reached. Sisterhood as infrastructure, not sentiment.

Follow BRAVE's journey at https://brave-girl.org/
Visual credit: BRAVE

06/18/2026

For True North impactful programmes mean that environments children learn in are safe and supported environments. This work is based in Vrygrond, a community in the outskirts of Cape Town, where early childhood development has historically been under-resourced and under-supported. True North works to change that, not through short-term interventions, but through consistent, long-term investment in the people and places that shape children's earliest experiences.

In 2025, True North supported 30 pre-schools reaching 1,783 children. 19 unregistered ECD centres received their Bronze certification, giving them a formal pathway toward full registration and the security to keep operating. Part of the offerings is a seven-year qualification programme that helps increase the number of qualified ECD staff in the community and raises the standard of care children receive every day.

New partnerships are being formed. Resources are being distributed. Community leadership is at the centre of it all. This is what it looks like when a community organisation takes the long view.

Follow True North Vrygrond to stay connected with their work. To read more, visit their reports and documentation at https://www.true-north.co.za/reports-and-documentation/

06/04/2026

Siyakwazi opened 2026 the way they work: “clarity of purpose and intentional action.”

Their 2025 impact report tells a story of children who were seen, caught, and held before the gaps in their lives had a chance to widen through Siyakwazi 3 flagship programmes. The numbers speak for themselves.

The School Readiness Programme ensures children at risk of falling behind don't slip through unnoticed. In 2025, most children who received targeted support successfully caught up, and for the first time, four schools saw every Grade 1 learner reach the benchmark.

The Inclusion Programme ensures children with disabilities and their families are not left to navigate the system alone. In 2025, more children were reached, more families understood their child's diagnosis, and more children accessed the therapy and clinic support they needed than ever before.

The Early Learning Programme invests in children from the very start, building the foundations that everything else depends on. In 2025, the majority of children enrolled ended the year developmentally above average, a transformation driven by consistent home visits, caregiver support, and early intervention from the very first months of life.

Siyakwazi reached 174 children with disabilities, and more than 7,000 home visits across all programmes. Behind every one of those numbers is a child who stayed in the system, a family that was not left to manage alone, and a teacher better equipped to meet every learner in the room.

Read Siyakwazi's full 2025 Impact Report and follow their journey at https://siyakwazi.org/about-us/

Visual credit: Siyakwazi

05/21/2026

Impactful programs are not just about how many children you reach. It is about whether the support you offer actually changes something.

Thanda, one of our partners based in Mtwalume, KwaZulu-Natal, has built their entire approach around that statement. Their 2025 Impact Report shows what is possible when communities are supported with consistency, care, and meaningful measurement.

According to Thanda's 2025 Impact Report, children in their Early Childhood Development programmes were more than four times more likely to be ready for Grade R than children with no access to ECD at all. 381 farmers in their Nisela programme are running their farms as businesses, growing food, and building livelihoods. Nearly 5,000 household members are feeding their families from gardens they tend themselves. And 326 young people in their leadership programmes are leaving with the skills and confidence to cope with the real challenges in their lives.

Read the full 2025 Impact Report at https://thanda.org/impact/ and follow Thanda to stay connected with their work.
Visual credit: Thanda

05/07/2026

In 2025, Even Ground’s partners collectively supported 5,459 families and reached 6,358 children across South Africa, helping them grow and access new opportunities. Partners supported 434 young people through youth development initiatives. Youth development is about more than programmes. It is about creating pathways for young people to build skills, access education, and participate meaningfully in their communities, with impact that extends to families and beyond.

As Audrey February from BRAVE Rock Girl shares:
"BRAVE exists to inspire and empower young girls and women to become leaders. For 16 years, we have helped shape over 1,000 young women and girls, many becoming the first in their families to finish school and pursue further opportunities. By investing in young people, we are strengthening a better society. They are the next leaders, and equipping them with the right tools creates a future with greater opportunity."

As we close this series, we are grateful to our partners for building an ecosystem of support that enables South African children and young people to thrive.

Address

234 E 4th Street
New York, NY
10009

Telephone

+15412552385

Website

https://www.evenground.org/contribute/

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