Mayor of Cape Town Gives Green Light to SOS Africa Gordon’s Bay Education Centre Build

We are delighted to announce that the office of the Mayor of Cape Town has granted permission for SOS Africa to operate an After-school Education Centre at its Gordon’s Bay property, with immediate effect. As a consequence, disadvantaged children from the area will soon receive vital holistic after-school support at the property each afternoon and on Saturday mornings: Cape Town Mayor Approves Gordons Bay Education Centre Building Project (sosafrica.com).

This exciting initiative has been made possible thanks to a record-breaking Minecraft livestream fundraising event hosted by Hermitcraft celebrities Rendog, Grian, Scar and Bdubs. Throughout the 4-hour fundraising event, hundreds of thousands of Minecraft fans tuned in and donated over £100,000 towards the Education Centre Building Project.

The Gordon’s Bay Education Centre design process first began back in June 2021 with the ‘consent for use’ application being submitted early the following year; but a drawn-out process of resistance and objections from a small group of neighbours, resulted in further changes to the design and ‘consent for use’ application. Further appeals from 4 neighbours escalated the process to the Mayor’s Office who recently ruled in favour of the application.

“Despite what has been an extremely stressful and prolonged process which has caused unnecessary delays to such a vital project, we greatly appreciate the Mayor’s support and are very excited to see our plans finally come to fruition. When complete, the Centre will provide holistic education programmes which will transform the lives of children in need from local communities.” (Matt Crowcombe, Founder SOS Africa)

With building work shortly set to commence, the SOS Africa staff hope that the project will be completed by the end of the year, and open in time for the start of the academic year in January 2024. Once finished, the After-school Education Centre will facilitate a primary school classroom, 2 high school classrooms, an office, large kitchen, bathrooms, workshop and outdoor teaching spaces. This is in addition to the pre-existing swimming pool and gardens.

“Although we are both surprised and disappointed not to have received wholehearted support from all neighbours for such an honourable initiative in an ideal location, many members of the local community have not only backed our plans but offered to volunteer at the Centre when it opens.”

The SOS Africa Team have just launched an Education Centre Building Project Blog so that the charity’s supporters, project sponsors and the charity staff and children can follow the progress of the building work over the coming months.

“We are so excited to be able to share regular updates with Rendog, Grian, Scar, Bdubs and their generous followers, to show the incredible impact which will be made by their generosity. This centre will be a beacon of light for so many children growing up in poverty and will hopefully inspire them throughout their school years and beyond.”

If you have any questions about the Building Project or would like to get involved, please do not hesitate to email SOS Africa Founder Matt Crowcombe.