📍Mbazwana, South Africa
“They stood on that stage and they were fearless.”
No stage fright. No hesitation. Just children telling their stories with fire in their eyes.
This is what this project is about.
🔥 EMBOLDEN
🔥 ENCOURAGE &
🔥 EMPOWER
the youth to speak out, express themselves and see that their stories matter.
FLOW will bring weekly creative arts workshops to 460 children in Grades 6–9 across two schools in Mbazwana, a deeply rural area in KwaZulu Natal, where children’s opportunities are extremely limited.
Storytelling. Drama. Poetry. Dance. Song. Visual arts.
Not as extras. But as an anchor and a way for a child to discover that their story matters. That their voice carries. That they are capable of creating something from nothing and making a room full of people feel it.
Sessions will run four days a week, every week. Led by local artist and facilitator for 30 years, Dumsani Ngubane.
This is not a one-off visit or a holiday programme. It is sustained, regular, real engagement, the kind that actually changes something.
I first saw this happen in 2014, when I lived and worked in KwaZulu-Natal.
Children who had every reason to be invisible stood bold in front of visitors and performed pieces built from their own daily lives. The energy in those rooms was palpable. Raw. The kind you feel in your chest before you understand it in your head.
The visitors were captivated. Moved. Often in tears, me included.
Not because the children were polished. Because they were real. Because they had been given something so simple and so rare: permission to take up space, to be seen, to say:
“"This is my story and it is worth telling.”
I watched children light up and I promised myself I would come back and help make this permanent. It took me a decade. But here we are.
35€ is what it costs to give one child a full year of the FLOW Project.
Not €350. Not €3,500. Thirty-five euros. Less than a dinner out.
We are raising €4,664 to launch the first six months, covering the essentials that make it possible: getting children into the room, keeping them fed and focused, documenting every session so you can see exactly what your contribution is doing.
35€
€10 — snacks for a full week for one grade (± 120 children). Children who arrive hungry cannot concentrate. This changes that.
€35 — one child's participation for a full year. Materials, transport, food, adult support. Everything.
€75 — a month of art supplies for the entire program (460 children)
€100 — two weeks of sessions across both schools. Four days of workshops per week.
€500 — gets us meaningfully toward the documentation equipment that means you'll actually see what happens. Photos, videos, monthly updates, real faces, real moments. It will also contribute significantly to the set-up costs with microphones, speakers, branded clothing, banners etc to bring trust to parents and teachers of the seriousness of the project.
Any amount.
Every amount.
This is a targeted grass-roots project with a precise budget and zero waste.
Every € has a specific home
The FLOW Project is led on the ground by Dumsani Ngubane, a community arts facilitator with 30 years of experience, a former schoolteacher, and someone who has been working with the children of Mbazwana his entire life.
He knows these children. He knows their families. He knows which girl needs to be encouraged to the front of the room and which boy will surprise everyone the moment he's given a microphone.
That depth of trust and relationship cannot be imported or manufactured. It exists because Dumsani has been showing up, for decades, and the community knows it.
Depth and trust from 30 years of showing up for the community is the foundation we bring into this project.
Together we can make it happen
Dumsani and I, Elin founder of Survive to Thrive, first met in 2012 (see image) and later worked closely on the ground through 2014-2015.
During this time we developed a deep respect for each other’s work, values and ethics and subsequently, Dumsani shared me his life-long dream of building a recreational art center to support these children in a permanent sustainable environment.
The Long-term Vision
The center will work as a community hotspot for opportunity and growth, where children get trained and invited to express themselves through creative mediums.
Additionally, the centre will also:
❤️🩹 get kids off the streets,
❤️🩹 fight poverty,
❤️🩹 reduce teenage pregnancy
❤️🩹 and avoid drug and alcohol abuse
… which are just some of the major local issues.
The Flow Recreational Art Centre is the long-term vision that will come to fruition through the work itself: Involving the children from day one and share their brilliance with the world as a way to give them first-hand agency and impact to raise funds and influence positive change in their community.
We believe that sustainability and true change can only take place from the inside out. By empowering the youngsters through hands-on involvement and practise, they will see the impact unfold in real time imprinting possibility and the embodied experience of agency, which in turn can break generational cycles of poverty.
All it takes is one child to believe she/he can do it.
These art workshops aren’t just creative education. They are vehicles to build agency and impact the community at its core to finally move from surviving to thriving.
This is not a charity where your money disappears into a system and you never hear about it again.
We will share monthly updates through the blog and email with photos, moments, the children's work and more throughout the year. You will see exactly what is happening and what your contribution made possible.
Sign up below to follow along. Or donate and we'll keep you posted regardless.
Will you join?
The goal is €4,664 for the first 6months.
We have a precise plan, a trusted local leader, two partner schools, and 460 children ready to begin.
What we need is you.
If this moved you, we invite you to donate now.
And/or share this page with one person who might care.
That is genuinely enough to make a difference. ❤️
"I want those young girls and boys to know they can do and be anything they want in life."
- Dumsani Ngubane
OBS: All amounts are in EUR. International donors; Your bank or PayPal will convert automatically at checkout.
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Survive to Thrive ASBL
IBAN: BE44 9675 5663 2745
BIC: TRWIBEB1XXX
Reference: FLOW Project