Our history

As an association, Kulu Manzi supports children and young adults from the various townships in Cape Town, South Africa. Founded in 2012 as the Kulu Manzi Surfing Foundation and active as a private Kulu Manzi project from 2015 to 2020, we have undergone some changes in recent years and finally founded the Kulu Manzi association in December 2020.


Founding of an association

05 December 2020

At the end of an eventful year 2020, we took another decisive step in the history of Kulu Manzi: We founded a non-profit (unregistered) association. The Kulu Manzi project thus becomes the Kulu Manzi association. Big advantage: From now on we can issue donation receipts and thus give our donors tax breaks.

Cooperation with the University of the Western Cape

25 May 2020

With the University of the Western Cape, we have found the perfect partner for higher education. Our joint scholarship program will support students from the townships with limited financial resources in the future. Our first scholarship holder was successfully enrolled in the Sport, Development and Peace diploma in April 2020.

New cooperations

30 March 2020

Currently we are working on a new concept for cooperation in the higher education sector. We will inform you as soon as we have any news and keep you up to date on all developments.

The handball programs come to an end

31 October 2019

After establishing the handball programs at four schools in Lavender Hill together with PLAY HANDBALL and Learning in Reach in 2017, the two schools Zerilda Park and Levana Primary are now continuing the programs independently. What a great result of our work! Our former intern La-Toyah, who has done great work as a coach and caregiver for two years, is now on her own two feet and is now working on her future career.

Extension of the programs

29 October 2018

The handball internship is extended to the whole year of 2019. This will continue to support the work of intern La-Toyah in the Lavender Hill township in Cape Town. With 24,000 Rand, that is around 1,500 Euros, we can secure her position as a training assistant at PLAY HANDBALL in Cape Town until the end of 2019. Many thanks to PLAY HANDBALL and Learning in Reach! You are making it possible for us to support the people of Lavender Hill with your great work on site.

Project advisory board

1 October 2018

Personnel reinforcement at Kulu Manzi: In 2018 we set up a project advisory board. Matthias Linn and Moritz Keppel are two friends of Judith and Jan who join the team and support the project with their entrepreneurial experience and their NGO expertise.

Team Kulu Manzi Project

25 March 2018

The mountain bike professionals Markus Bauer and Frans Claes are starting at Cape Epic, the toughest mountain bike race in the world, together as one team: Team Kulu Manzi Project. With their furious eighth place in the overall class, they ensure tremendous attention for the sport development work in Cape Town and our Kulu Manzi project.

First joint projects

29 September 2017

The time has come: We are sending the largest sum of Kulu Manzi history to Cape Town. Over 4,000 Euros are invested in an internship program that gives the young mother La-Toyah the opportunity to earn some money for her family through handball coaching and to receive further training. Another part of the money finances the first handball equipment of the four schools in Lavender Hill and establishes handball programs there. Further investments include equipping one class from each of the four schools with books, a scholarship for a selected student up to graduation and supporting Learning in Reach’s Poverty Stoplight program.

New partners

15 May 2017

It is official: The Kulu Manzi project, PLAY HANDBALL and Learning in Reach become partners. During our visit in Cape Town we were able to have a look at the great work of both organizations on site. Together with Nicola Scholl from PLAY HANDBALL we also organized a first handball workshop at a school in Lavender Hill. Four schools of the township, PLAY HANDBALL, Learning in Reach and of course we from the Kulu Manzi project came together. The aim was to convince the teachers of handball sport and its positive social side effects and thus lay the foundation for future cooperation.

Looking for cooperation partners

29 April 2017

Short visit to Cape Town. The goal: negotiations with cooperation partners who can support us on site. We wanted to go back to our beginnings – support children through sport and education – and put long-term measures in place. It became increasingly clear to us that this is hardly possible from home. When looking for suitable projects, we came across PLAY HANDBALL and Learning in Reach. After getting to know each other via Skype, we finally made our way to Cape Town to exchange ideas personally.

A new appearance for Kulu Manzi

7 April 2017

Kulu Manzi gets a new logo! Our good friend Kati Michaelis made us so happy with a slightly different kind of donation: She designed us a new, creative logo that underlines all facets of Kulu Manzi. A big thank you to Kati Michaelis Illustrations, who took the time to explore the spirit of Kulu Manzi in many and long discussions and to implement it in an incredibly great way.

Cape Town for the third time

3 February 2016

In 2016, Jan spent almost three months in Southern Africa. He brought with him the largest sum to date that, thanks to you, we have raised for the children in Lavender Hill. We had around 4,000 Euros available this time! So much that we could not use everything on site, because we still had a lot of plans for the coming years. You can read about what we have organized with the money here. In addition to South Africa, Jan wanted to get to know other countries in Africa this time and used his time for a multi-week tour of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Talk at the 65th company anniversary

22 January 2016

As part of the celebrations for the 65th anniversary of Gerald Hübner GmbH, Jan was able to speak about our Kulu Manzi project and broaden the cultural and social horizons of the employees. He reported on the situation in South Africa, why development aid is necessary and what approach the sports and education project Kulu Manzi is taking.

Private talk

10 April 2015

On the evening of April 10th, 2015 Jan was invited by the Schuhmann family in Lohr am Main and gave a private talk about the grievances in South Africa and our Kulu Manzi project.

Kulu Manzi Projekt

1 April 2015

In 2015 the Kulu Manzi Surfing Foundation had to be handed over to a partner. The foundation founded in 2012 by Brad Kleingeld could no longer exist financially on its own. We agreed with our partner Projects Abroad to hand over the entire project and let it proceed under the name “Projects Abroad – Surfing Project”. However, this did not mean the end of Kulu Manzi: On April 1st, 2015 we started today’s Kulu Manzi project to continue helping the children from Lavender Hill. As a private project, we initially focused on supporting the “surf kids” with (school) clothing and food.

Kulu Manzi bank account

26 November 2014

After some back and forth and many discussions with banks and tax advisors, we were finally able to open an account for the Kulu Manzi project.

Do you want to help?

You can find out how to contact us here.

First press article

14 October 2014

After our stay in Cape Town in 2014, the Main Post reported on our work at the Cape of Good Hope. The daily newspaper gave us almost one page of the issue from October 13, 2014. Read the full article here.

Back to Cape Town

12 August 2014

After two years the time has come: Jan is coming back to South Africa to support the Kulu Manzi Surfing Foundation for a second time. This time he spent five weeks at the Cape of Good Hope. During this time, he was able to bring some children closer to surfing, enable them to spend wonderful hours by the sea and make new friends. He also managed to convince local companies to support the project and use the donations for Kulu Manzi sustainably. You can find a precise list of the donations used here.

Kulu Manzi Surfing Foundation

1 July 2012

The Kulu Manzi Surfing Foundation was founded in 2012. The South African Brad Kleingeld made it his goal to make it easier for children from the townships to access the sea and to teach them how to surf. The foundation was supported by Projects Abroad, which arranges for volunteers from all over the world to work in various projects. Jan did his first internship in Cape Town in the same year. He supported the project for three months and accompanied children from the township Lavender Hill on their first surfing attempts at Muizenberg Beach.