Who We Are
The Sozo Foundation is a non-profit organisation, based in the impoverished Cape Flats community of Vrygrond, Cape Town. With a vision to see the community of Vrygrond living with dignity, purpose and hope, Sozo creates opportunities for holistic development through three key areas: Education, Skills Development and Social Enterprise.
What We Do
We run core projects that work to promote Education, Skills Development and Enterprise in Vrygrond. Our current projects are Educentre, GED General Education Diploma, Youth Café Skills Schools, The Wild Goose Bakery, Dancing Goat Roastry and Kingdom Builders.
How We Do It
For our work to be sustainable for years to come, forming deep and lasting relationships with community members is essential. Which is why everything we do in the community is through relationship with individuals and other like-minded organisations and partners.
Meet The Tribe
Our work in the Vrygrond Community wouldn’t be possible without our dedicated team, the Sozo Tribe. Over 75% of our staff are from the local community.
We are passionate about raising up role models from within the community.
Where We Work
Vrygrond is a vibrant and multi-cultural community situated in the Cape Flats of Cape Town, South Africa.
One of the oldest informal settlements in the Cape, Vrygrond was originally a fishermen’s village. Today, Vrygrond is home to a diverse but impoverished community from across the Cape, South Africa and the African continent.
Meet Anton and Elana Cuyler, founders of the Sozo Foundation
THE SOZO STORY
In 2010, husband and wife team, Anton and Elana Cuyler, traded in their jobs in England and returned to their home country, South Africa, to volunteer as youth workers in Cape Town.
They hit the ground running, volunteering at the youth group of the Bay Community Church in a suburb neighbouring Vrygrond, a community and people that would soon capture their hearts.
Many children from Vrygrond attended the youth group, and it was there that Anton and Elana encountered the crushing need that these young people were in. This need was made even more real as Anton and Elana visited the youth in their homes. Houses in terrible decay, cycles of abuse and rejection, and living in an area where gangsterism, violence and crime is rampant.
Moved by what they had seen and filled with fresh vision to see a community transformed, Anton and Elana began developing what would become the heartbeat of The Sozo Foundation. Their initial partner, the Bay Community Church, gave Anton and Elana their full backing and support. The couple consulted with a community development specialist, and devised three initial projects: Boutique, Eden, and Educentre. Each of these projects provided practical solutions to the obvious needs that they saw.
And so, The Sozo Foundation was born, and Anton and Elana got to work. Nine years later, The Sozo Foundation has grown in capacity and experienced increasing favour with the community. Sozo now employs 33 people, 3/4 of which are from the community itself. Land was generously given to the organisation for the construction of its very own centre, and new projects are added almost every year, deepening Sozo’s impact.
The future of Vrygrond gets brighter with every tutoring session, lifeskills workshop and more. Thank you for partnering with us on this incredible journey of restoring dignity, purpose and hope.
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