Safe Study is a creative arts enrichment initiative that was founded in 2020, working with marginalised and underprivileged children in the East of Johannesburg, South Africa.

We have created safe enrichment education spaces between the Victory Yards community and the broader Lorentzville, Bez Valley and Troyeville neighbourhoods.

Our beneficiaries are children and young people, at-risk of inequality in education from quintile 1-3 ranking (represent the poorest schools). 

Founded on the street pavements, co-founders Georgina Bennett and Lungi Hlatshwayo started teaching kids at a community soup kitchen during the first COVID-19 lockdown.

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about us image graphic

The initiative was a response to the crisis in educational support for our community during the pandemic that left many children with limited or no access to distance or online learning. There was a desperate need to create a space so that these children could continue to learn and be stimulated.  We started to think about what bridges could be made to close the resource gaps for these vulnerable and marginalised communities. 

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During the pandemic, partnerships were formed to strengthen our community. Makers Valley Partnership, Timbuktu in the Valley, Victoria Yards, Nandos and other organisations joined forced to create collaborative solutions. With the support of these partnerships, Safe Study was created. We decided to start immediately and make use of the resources we had on hand through the helping hand of Victoria Yards.  

Since its inception, Safe Study’s mission has been to advance quality and equitable education by creating safe enrichment education spaces for children and young people in Johannesburg. We want to build better and stronger bridges of support, and resources and provide access to quality and equitable education and creative programs. 

To ensure sustainability and greater effectiveness, we build bridges between the Victory Yards community and the broader Lorentzville, Bez Valley and Troyeville neighbourhoods, between mothers and support networks and resources, and between children and new creative educational opportunities. 

We want to promote life skills and Safe Study is about creating safe, enriching and encouraging educational spaces for children and young people in South Africa. 

Safe Study has a potential in the education sector to play a powerful leadership role in both promoting equity and advancing research on effective strategies on the inequalities of our education system for our country.

Lungile Hlatshwayo,
co-founder and co-director