We are the only youth programme associated with a retreat centre in South Africa and probably in Africa and connect with those who live and visit there. In our training and teaching, we focus on the 5 themes of Volmoed.

We are deeply connected to and aligned with the Taizé community in France. Every year we send at least two young people to volunteer at Taizé for about 3 months. We have at least 3 “Taizé days” per annum. The next one is on 9 May at Volmoed.

We use drumming and drum-making as a “vehicle” to gather unemployed young people for 3 days per week to build community, their confidence and their leadership skills.

We never ask which church or faith tradition young adults who are drawn to us are from but welcome any young unemployed adult from two local communities into our space. We also welcome other young adults who wish to be associated with us. We also engage in inter-faith dialogues.

Young people do not pay to be on this programme – the programme pays them. The payment they make is their presence, their commitment and their dedication.

The arts play a huge role in our life together – the drumming we do is supplemented with choral singing. We also do unique painting on our drums, and some dancing. We are even involved in local tourism activities.

We travel from time to time – mostly in the Western Cape, but sometimes nationally and sometimes globally. We have not yet travelled to other African countries but hope to do that.

We are involved in a deep research project and is the subject of other people’s research.

Once a year, we go to UCT business school to be part of their MPhil class in innovation.

Most of our financial support comes from local individuals and businesses and also from friends in Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. Thank you all for your wonderful support!