From Visitor to Friend
Friends for townshipsFriendship isn’t a one-time visit. Friendship means still being there next month. The children of Langa in South Africa need someone who stays. Your donation keeps them safe, in school and off the street — that’s how their future is being shaped.
MAKE AN IMPACT
How it works
Choose a project
Browse our active projects and find a cause that speaks to your heart.
Make a donation
Donate securely online. Every cent counts, no matter the amount.
We take action
Your donation goes directly to the project of your choice.
See your impact
Receive updates by email on how your donation is making a difference.
ABOUT LANGA
A place that stays
with you
Langa is Cape Town’s oldest township in South Africa. Home to around 70,000 people. Vibrant. Proud. And facing realities most of us will never know firsthand.
More than half of residents are unemployed. Many live in shacks — shelters of corrugated iron and reclaimed wood, with no running water, no toilet, no heat. For water or a bathroom, you walk. Sometimes hundreds of metres. Children go to school on an empty stomach. Classes of 70 or more. After school: the street. Because home offers nothing — and certainly not a safe place to do homework.
And yet. There is life here. Warmth. People with plans, with dreams, with a fierce desire to build something better.
With relatively small amounts of money, real change is possible.
Help Langa
Projects that need your support
Schools
A hungry child doesn’t learn — especially in classes with more children than desks. € 70 a month buys a meal, a uniform that fits, and modern materials. € 250 buys a projector & screen. Help the teachers keep it going.
Sport
The teams are playing right now, two streets away. Those hours of sports build the daily habits that protect young people in Langa from substance use and risky behaviour. € 75 a month keeps a team playing.
Orphanages / Children’s homes
Thirty orphans, six caregivers, under one safe roof. Ikhaya Lekamva is a leading example — for these children, it’s everything. They go to school, do their homework, take care of each other, and are eager to give back. € 180 a month keeps one child safe.
Disabled centre
One running toilet and one working stove — that is the daily reality of a nurse caring for 26 dependent people living with severe, permanent disabilities, all of them wheelchair users. € 1,500 buys them an extra toilet or a new stove.
Fires & Floods
A fire or a flood takes everything they have – all gone in minutes.
€ 250 brings basics such as food, clothing, a bed, medication.
€ 550 rebuilds their home. Prefund now or wait for our emergency email.
After-school care
The school day doesn’t end when the final bell rings!Every child deserves a safe place after school. To do homework, share a meal and spend time with caring mentors.
€ 80 a month gives one child that place.
ABOUT US
The story behind Friends for Townships
“It’s a privilege to lead a life
that enables you to help others.”
– Henk-Steven Renzenbrink, founder
The first time I walked into Langa, something in me stopped.
Just a few kilometres from the centre of Cape Town, I suddenly found myself in a completely different world. On one side of the city people live in comfort, surrounded by opportunity. On the other side, thousands of people live in small shacks made from scrap wood and corrugated metal.
The contrast is hard to describe.
I remember thinking:
How can this exist in the same place?
But what stayed with me even more than the poverty was something else.
Life.
Children playing in the streets.
People greeting each other.
Tour guides proudly telling the story of their community.
Despite everything, there was dignity.
And I felt a quiet thought arise:
Maybe I can be part of the solution.
BECOME A FRIEND
Staying connected matters
As a Friend of Langa, you receive updates from the township, stories of the people your support reaches, news about projects, moments that remind you why it matters. It takes thirty seconds. And it means Langa stays on your radar instead of fading into a memory.
Because out of sight shouldn’t mean out of mind.
