05/10/2026
Twenty years of walking alongside children. Twenty years of quiet generosity. Twenty years of lives changed.
This week, Goedgedacht has the extraordinary privilege of celebrating the 20th anniversary of Help the Rural Child.
For two decades, Help the Rural Child has stood alongside Goedgedacht and the rural communities we serve. Their support has often been given quietly, without fanfare, but its impact can be seen everywhere.
The greatest monuments to this partnership are not buildings or plaques.
They are people.
They are the children who came through Goedgedacht’s programmes, who received a meal when there was not enough food at home, who found a safe place after school, who received help with homework, who discovered that somebody believed in them, and who were given opportunities that helped change the direction of their lives.
Many of those children are adults today.
Their lives are the real return on twenty years of investment.
Goedgedacht itself has changed greatly during these two decades. We have learned from experience. We have learned what works, what does not work, where our resources can make the greatest difference, and where we need to change course.
Today, we are concentrating our work increasingly in the Riebeek Valley, and at the heart of our strategy is what we call the first 8,000 days of a child’s life.
Why 8,000 days?
Because we have learned that changing the trajectory of a child’s life cannot happen through one intervention at one age. A child needs support from the earliest years, through school, adolescence and the difficult transition into adulthood. Nutrition, education, safe spaces, mentoring, family support and opportunity all matter.
Our agricultural work has changed too. What once focused strongly on household food gardens has developed into supporting small-scale farmers and sustainable livelihoods. That change came from years of learning about what creates lasting impact.
And through these changes — through successes, challenges, experimentation and learning — Help the Rural Child stayed with Goedgedacht.
That kind of partnership is rare.
It is not simply funding. It is trust.
Today, one of the most important ways Help the Rural Child supports Goedgedacht is by helping us provide meals to the children attending our POP youth centres in Riebeek Kasteel and Riebeek West. Every weekday, around 200–220 children receive a nutritious meal a day.
For many of them, the meal they receive is not a small part of the programme. It is what makes the rest of the programme possible.
A hungry child struggles to learn. A child who has eaten can settle down, concentrate, do homework, participate and begin to imagine a different future.
That is why this support matters so deeply.
This weekend, Goedgedacht will have the privilege of welcoming Help the Rural Child to our POP centres in Riebeek Kasteel and Riebeek West, followed by a celebration at Goedgedacht Farm.
We want especially to acknowledge Nicky Antonie, who have been part of this journey from its beginnings, and Matthew Cheketri, the current CEO of Help the Rural Child. We also honour every staff member, volunteer, donor, shop supporter and friend who has contributed to this remarkable organisation over the past twenty years.
To everyone across Cape Town who has supported Help the Rural Child: thank you.
And please continue supporting them.
Goedgedacht can say this with confidence because we have witnessed their impact first-hand for twenty years.
Help the Rural Child works.
Their generosity has reached far beyond financial support. It has helped create opportunity, dignity and hope in the lives of rural children.
Congratulations on twenty remarkable years.
Goedgedacht is deeply grateful to have walked this road with you, and we look forward to continuing the journey together.
May the next twenty years build even greater monuments — not of stone, but **in the lives and futures of children. ❤️
📸 Pictured during preparations for the new library at the Riebeek Kasteel POP Centre are Nicky Antonie and Natalie from Help the Rural Child, together with Natalie Marmann, YearBeyond mentor; Elzanne Bolsen, Riebeek Kasteel specialist; Melissa Jacobs, representing the Social Employment Fund programme in Riebeek Kasteel; and Brittany Damonse, a YearBeyond Academy student.
