ABANG AFRICA TRUST® AND PROJECTS

Abang Africa Trust, a non profit organisation (No: IT 9139/06), has been set up to coordinate visits and volunteering work, provide support and handle donations for tourism related projects in southern Africa.

Most projects can be visited and a selection of the projects can be supported by volunteers. Tasks depend on the volunteer’s skills and needs of the project.

Loose your heart and Soul in Africa; meet and share with Africa’s people. Choose to visit and experience projects of your interest on a tour of your choice. Enrich your vacation with knowledge and insights acquired locally.

Benefit the local rural and urban communities directly; see what they are doing to advance themselves. Be inspired and uplifted after visiting an orphanage or HIV-Aids project. Participate in the upgrading of a ghost mine town.

Support a local soccer team, visit an amazing craft or pottery project and enjoy an African dance performance by street children. Learn about the art of winemaking and tasting on a Fairtrade farm. The choice is yours.

Share your suggestions and ideas and support a project of your choice (download support form)

Supporting these various tourism related projects is part of our responsible tourism policy. We relay the feedback and ideas to the project leaders with the aim of improving the tours and the projects as a whole. Abang Africa Travel redistributes a share of its profit and commissions back to the Abang Africa Trust, the liaised projects and their communities.

Contact Abang Africa Travel for further information regarding the Abang Africa Trust and the liaised projects.

 Thandi Fairtrade Wine Coop
Choice of Tours
      
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 Price:  no admission fee for optional quadbike or lunch
   
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Associated Tours:
Cape, Karoo & Garden Route
Heaven On Earth Tour
Mandelas Africa

Visitors:  The Farm Kitchen provides superb local, national and international food for locals and visitors. Crafts can also be purchased which have been made either in our craft room or brought in from other empowerment projects.  Vegetable gardens are just being established to provide fresh vegetables for the farm kitchen and visitors.

Two mountain bike trails are open for visitors, a 27km and a 9km  These trails can also be walked. There are also quad bike trails and information on hiring quad bikes can be obtained from Kamazoo.By arrangement small tours can visit the orchards and vineyards accompanied by one of the farm workers.

In all Thandi is the perfect stop for lunch, wine tasting and a talk of how the workers hope to benefit from farm ownership.
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PROJECT INFORMATION

Thandi is a Xhosa word meaning: "Nurturing Love". Thandi is a true empowerment project with 90% ownership in the hands of its workers. It was also the first true Fair Trade accredited wine. Established in Elgin in 1995, Thandi’s aim is to empower previously disadvantaged farming communities. With support and mentorship from leading players in the fruit and wine industries, these communities export top-class produce to countries all over the world.

Their love and passion has quickly given Thandi a reputation for exceptional quality and the project is now being applied to wine and fruit farms in other provinces around South Africa.

Thandi’s methods have been so successful that the project is being studied by US and Russian observers. Our vision of land transformation and community development may be redefining traditional notions of empowerment, but it is the people who are making it a brand of international renown. Revitalised international interest in South African wines provided an ideal opportunity to create a viable product for global export, and so Thandi Wines was born.

From the outset, the imperative was to involve community members at all levels, from growing to actual wine making. It also became clear that Thandi's success would depend on sound partnerships and so it was that Vinfruco, one of South Africa's leading wine exporters, came to play a vital role in terms of mentorship, infrastructure and marketing expertise.

A milestone was achieved in 2003 when Thandi became the first wine brand in the world to achieve Fairtrade accreditation. This was followed by a gold medal at the International Wine Challenge in London. Today, this original model has been so successful that more wine farms in prominent regions are joining the Thandi initiative.

Thandi is a 200 hectare farm but only 48 hectares are under cultivation with apples, pears plums and grapes. The Farm Kitchen provides superb local, national and international food for locals and visitors. Crafts can also be purchased which have been made either in our craft room or brought in from other empowerment projects.  Vegetable gardens are just being established to provide fresh vegetables for the farm kitchen and visitors.

Tshepang is a programme for orphaned and vulnerable children. Currently  a team of 27 workers is taking care of 230 children. Meals are provided and small economic activities are initiated, such as a sewing atelier and a vegetable garden.
Baboon Matters is a baboon monitoring project on the Cape Peninsula. Baboon Matters developed the 'Walking with the Baboon' project to bridge the gap between the wild world of the Baboons and the civilised world of their human cousins.
Colleens Place of Hope is an orphanage for abused, homeless and neglected children in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town. Vistors, donations and volunteers are welcomed. For more information please contact Abang Africa Trust.
All over the world sport is connecting people.  Underpriviledged football teams in South Africa are now looking for your help to open their world and make their dreams reality. Get your ball rolling and make a real difference!
The Bush School & Wildlife Orphanage is a registered non-profit organisation located in the Limpopo Province, close to the town of Hoedspruit in South Africa.

Join an African mama in her kitchen and try your hand on a cook-up on this alternative wine tour. End off your excursion with an overnight stay in the cultural homestays, if you so wish.

Explore the Big 5 in a private game reserve, in the Eastern Cape, malaria-free area. Participate in the combination of conservation and community development programmes.

The Sport Coaching project is set on the beautiful Cape Peninsula; there is amazing talent waiting to be discovered amongst the underprivileged children in the shanty township of Imizano Yetho.
Visit the first wine farm in the world to receive Fairtrade accreditation - Established in Elgin in 1995, Thandi’s aim is to empower previously disadvantaged farming communities.

The community run Nodumo Creche is located in the rural area of KwaMthethwa; Kwa-Zulu Natal. Most of the children at the creche have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS.
Based in Kraaifontein, Western Cape, the Lofdalproject has established several support systems for the local communities in need. A school, a hospice etc. Come and visit or volunteer and become part of the amazing work done.
Original T-Bag Design CC is a small company, situated in Hout Bay, near Cape Town, providing employment for previously unemployed residents in the local Shanty Town.
Phaphama Initiative is situated in Johannesburg. It is a training organisation teaching people about how they can improve human relationship skills. They also offer home stays where you can experience what if feels like to live as an 'Urban African' in South Africa.

The “Recycle Swop Shop for Kids” was intitiated in 2003 in response to the bitter reality that many children in the Kwasa Kwasa area of Zwelihle Township near Hermanus didn't have basic needs. 

The Siphosabadletshe High School is a project aimed at those children who have been affected by HIV/AIDS. Many are orphans due to their parents and other family members dying of HIV/AIDS.

 

With this programme we actively help save priority species. The programme is responsible for some of most important wildlife research monitoring projects in southern Africa.

The UNCEDO Pottery Project trains unemployed young women and youth to make wonderful pottery works.

VukAfrica is a socially consious, self empowering, cultural tour company, located in the Valley of 1000 Hills, on the western outskirts of Durban.

Based in Cape Town, Streetwires is a business with a social mission that is tackling the problems of unemployment and poverty in South Africa.

The Philani Weaving Project is part of the Philani Nutrition and Development Project, based in Kayelitsha, Western Cape.  

The Endangered Species Centre & Kapama Cheetah Breeding Project, are located in Hoedspruit near Kruger National Park.

The Threatened Species Project is based in Swaziland the 60,000 ha Lubombo Conservancy which contains lion, rhino, elephant, leopard, giraffe and a whole host of other big game.

Beautiful Gate has centres located in Muizenberg and Cross Roads; suburbs near Cape Town. 

Mdantsane Arts Centre is located in Mdantsane, a suburb near East London, Eastern Cape.

The Normandy project is a special psycholgy project, situated in the little village of Normandy, Limpopo.

This cooperative of small-scale rooibos farners in the Northern Cape, produce and market a fine quality, organic and fairtrade certified rooibos tea.   
Hop on and enjoy a donkey cart ride to explore the area and have a picnic on one of the farms along the way. De Rust, situated near Route 62, the longest wine route in the world!

The women’s project Penduka alone is a good enough reason for a visit to Katutura, the typically African suburb of the capital city, Windhoek in Namibia. 

The Christine Revell Children’s Home, running since September 1975, is based in Athlone, a suburb 5 minutes drive from Cape Town City Bowl, Western Cape.
Masibonisane Day Care Centre is located in Ngxingxolo Village, near East Londen in the Eastern Cape.

Thušanang  is a capacity building Non Profit Organisation, working in the deep rural areas of Limpopo (Northern Province) within a 100km radius of Haenertsburg.

Madi a Thavha, meaning “water from the mountains”, is a mountain farm, situated in the Soutpansberg mountains in the Limpopo province.
 
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