What a week of gifts and surprises! On Thursday we had a wonderful Volmoed 40 celebration service, followed by a blessing of the Tutu rose garden, beautifully designed by Theresa and built by the Volmoed staff.
Continue readingEvery week a WhatsApp update goes to about 300 people across the globe, and many of them pass it on to others. This is a summary of the past few weeks. To join the WhatsApp group, reach out to edwin@volmoedyouth.org.za.
Continue readingToday is South African Human Rights Day. This day was previously called “Sharpeville day” to commemorate what happened in Sharpeville – about 60 km south of Johannesburg – on 21 March 1960, when several protestors who wanted to burn their passbooks (or dompas) were shot and killed in the back by the apartheid police. Today, we continue to honour the courage and memory of the victims, some of the many martyrs and first seeds of our democracy.
The best way to honour them is to build the best possible democracy on this planet. And that will require that we do all we can to fight youth unemployment, the deep deep shame of our nation and unrealised hope of our constitution (apparently the best in the world). Hopeless young people are not a statistic to be thrown around: these are real human beings who want to honour the creativity inherent in them and honour their families but for whom there are no or very little opportunity to do so. We are proud to say that VYLTP is one institution that works every day to ensure that their human rights are affirmed. (Apologies for this sermon!).
Continue readingHi everyone
This morning, three Volmoed Youth leadership team members (Rene August, Wilma Jakobsen and I) will attend a memorial service for Mthunzi Gxashe. Who is that (you may ask)? Mthunzi was Arch Tutu’s left and right-hand man. He was a gentle-man in every way, humble and a true servant-leader. He was also married to the Tutus’ eldest daughter, Thandeka. Please keep her –especially her health – and the children in your prayers at this time.
Continue readingHi everyone!
On Thursday, we started our four-week focus on Reconciliation. The Afrikaans word is “Versoening” (“soen” means to kiss) and the isiXhosa word is “Uxolelwaniso” (“uxolo” means peace). One of the good things about being South African is that we have all these languages, each with its own unique nuance and emphasis. It is important that we reclaim this and other words before it loses all meaning (e.g. what does “peace” mean or what does “ceasefire” mean?). Whether we like it or not, there is a war on words and their meaning.
Continue readingThis is the last weekly update for this year as we have now officially closed for the year, except for Hermanus Country Market where we will have a stall as often as possible over the next few weeks. Our excellent volunteers (Walter and Sarah) with two young people will manage this stall for us. For us, it is not simply about “selling drums”: it is about telling the Volmoed Youth story to as many people as possible. We are the most outward-facing ministry of Volmoed and it is important that we share whatever good news we have to share.
Continue readingThank you to those of you who read and respond to our weekly update. Please feel free to tell me if you do not wish to continue to receive it (we will still love you!). Next week will be our last weekly update for this year as we officially close on 11 December and re-open on 8 January 2026. We need to rest …
A special thanks to Les and Cheryl from the Quest women’s group in Hermanus for your visit to us and your wonderful donation! Les put us in touch with Elaine, the owner of the Country Market in Hermanus – at the cricket grounds – who offered us a space at the market where we can drum and sell drums. We will definitely be taking up this opportunity from this week!
Continue readingOur leadership team met online this week. Sam White from Atlanta joined the team for the first time this week. Welcome Sam. He, together with his wife Janalene (originally from Durban), are alumnae of VYLTP 2016.
One of the decisions we made was to hold our 10th anniversary celebrations from
12–16 June 2026 as we can take advantage of that weekend. We hope that many of the alumnae as well as others between the ages of 18 and 35 will join us. Our theme will be “I call you friends” with a sub-theme of “From fear to courageous community”. How do we build friendships rather than fear? We look forward to some deep and joyful reflection on those themes.
This morning about 40 young adults will gather at Volmoed for a “Taizé day” under the theme “Advent hope for young people”. Besides the local young people, there will be 15 young people from Khayelitsha in Cape Town and others from across the Western Cape.
Also, one of our delegates to Taizé in France (Cleo) returns home this morning after five weeks in France due to personal reasons. We will embrace her upon her return. We have been getting photographs and videos from Masixole: this week they experienced snow in France!
Continue readingA year ago, we were in the USA on our “Drumming for unity and healing” tour. It was a few days after Trump’s election and many people felt encouraged by our presence.
Yesterday I counted that we have at least seven USA groups and one group from Canada visiting us in 2026.
6 overseas tourists=1 job
Township tourism
VYLTP
Volmoed Youth 