Ikhaya Labantwana

Sustainability Coffee Bay

Ikhaya Labantwana Montessori

Sustainable Coffee Bay is a registered non-profit and public benefit organisation. We work with the communities of the greater Coffee Bay area to improve their lives through education and other community initiatives.

Since 2002, projects were run informally by Coffee Shack Backpackers. They were managed by Coffee Shack staff and funded by Coffee Shack and its guests. As the projects grew in number and size, Sustainable Coffee Bay (SCB) was formed in 2011 to manage the community projects and raise the necessary funds. Nowadays, our work is divided into three focus areas: Early Childhood Development, Education and Youth Development, and Rural Assistance.

The funds we raise are used to enable us to provide education, skills training and employment for the communities we serve. Children in Coffee Bay who have little or no access to schooling and lack appropriate support from parents must be given opportunities to prove themselves capable of more. Our projects aim to help these children succeed in life.

Background

Coffee Bay in the Eastern Cape, is one of the poorest provinces in South Africa.

93% do not complete their secondary education

50% do not have access to early education programmes

73% have no formal sanitation services

16% live without any form of income

38% of the economically active population is unemployed

91% have no access to electricity

78% have no access to standard water supply

Our Story

Ikhaya Labantwana Montessori (ILM) started in 2011 with just 15 children in traditional housing. Due to an long waiting list and a lack of space, we built our very own Early Learning Centre with initial funding from the National Development Agency for up to 60 children.

Each child receives two nutritious meals per day. Vegetables that are grown in our school garden are used as part of the children’s meals.

The Montessori method promotes the development of the whole child (physically, intellectually, emotionally, socially and spiritually), while a sense of responsibility is being fostered in the child, as our environment is based on freedom within limits.

Our Team

Dawn Brochenin

Founding Director of SCB & Founding pre-school Principal

The only way to explain Dawn is as a one woman phenomenon and the founding heart of Sustainable Coffee Bay. Involved with Coffee Bay and the community now for over 10 years, she continues to change people’s lives through her understanding, strength and compassion. In 2014,

Dawn won National ECD Practioner of the Year, and our pre-school, Ikhaya Labantwana won National ECD Centre of the Year under her watch. Dawn provides valuable guidance and operational support to the organisation.

Nomonde Majongozi

Teacher & Business owner

Nomonde has been living in the Coffee Bay area her whole life. She was the Kitchen Manager and Chef at Coffee Shack Backpackers for 5 years and then became part-owner at Papazela’s Pizza in Coffee Bay. In 2015 she qualified as a Montessori teacher through Sustainable Coffee Bay. As well as continuing to operate her business, Nomonde works full time at Ikhaya Labantwana Montessori. Nomonde has a basket full of skills from cooking, sewing, crocheting, knitting to braiding hair. She’s a very progressive woman and a dynamic link with the local community.