Located in the rural Shongweni Dam Township,
our students at Egcekeni Primary School demonstrate profound creativity, musical ability, and inspiration
in the face of significant hardship.
COMMUNITY CHALLENGES
The reality our students face every day
In KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa's most populous province, deep structural inequality shapes daily life. Here's a snapshot of the community where we serve our students.
47%
unemployment rate
Nearly half of working-age adults in KwaZulu-Natal are without jobs, including those who have stopped looking for work entirely.
25%
of homes have flush toilets
In rural KZN, most households rely on pit latrines. Provincially, only 39% of those with "adequate sanitation" have flush toilets.
1 in 6
households lack basic access to drinking water
Over a third of households without on-site water spend more than 30 minutes fetching it. Over half of all households experienced water outages in 2024.
SOURCES
Stats SA via BusinessTech, Q4 2025 • SAnews/Stats SA, Q1 2025 • Children Count, UCT 2024
General Household Survey, Stats SA, 2024 • IOL/Mercury, 2025
