South African Education and Environment Project

About us

SAEP is dedicated to helping children and young adults in Cape Town's historically disadvantaged township communities develop their academic and life skills, obtain productive employment, and contribute as leaders to the economic and social development of their communities and their country.

The organisation serves children and youth aged 0-24 from Cape Town's impoverished informal settlements of Philippi, Samora Machel and Nyanga. These communities are plagued by some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy, poverty, rape, crime and HIV/AIDS in the world. The majority of children in these areas do not have access to quality care and Grade R education; at the high school level, learners struggle in under-resourced schools where critically low matriculation pass rates contribute to high levels of unemployment and severely limits access to tertiary education.

SAEP currently operates four major programmes in the Cape Flats area with the mission of providing under-served communities with academic support at every level. This includes:

-- Early Childhood Development Programme

-- High School Support and Enrichment Programme

-- Bridging Year Programme for recent High School matriculants

-- Tertiary Support Programme for those who have completed SAEP's bridging year and have been admitted to study at university

SAEP has been working since 1994 to implement innovative programmes for educational enrichment in Cape Town. In 2008, SAEP was recognized with two prestigious awards. SAEP’s Early Childhood Development Programme won an ABSA/Sowetan award as runner up Western Cape Resource & Training Organization of the Year and Norton Tennille, founder of SAEP (USA), won the Inyathelo Award for Exceptional Philanthropy for his groundbreaking work in education in the schools of Philippi and neighbouring townships.