OLIVE LEAF Foundation

OLIVE LEAF Foundation's vision is to shape a better world for current and future generations that
meets the fundamental human needs of all its people
gives voice to the unheard
constitutes strong, economically prosperous & self-reliant communities
manages its limited ecological resources responsibly

Our purpose is to enable sustainable community development.
Children & Youth

Constituting nearly 50 per cent of the population of least developed countries, children are most vulnerable to poverty and abuse. They disproportionately pay the price of inadequate nutrition, reduced health and poor education, leading to fewer opportunities to move out of poverty. OLIVE LEAF Foundation’s objective is to enable and support communities and community organisations to assist children and youth to reach their full potential. We do this by:

Mobilising and strengthening communities to meet the needs of vulnerable children and youth;

Facilitating psycho-social and life skills support for vulnerable children and youth;

Assisting vulnerable children and youth with targeted interventions; and

Supporting local educational institutions to enable children and youth to reach their full potential.

Community Wellness

Poverty and health are interrelated, with the poor especially vulnerable to further impoverishment resulting from inadequate public health care and the high cost of private health care. OLIVE LEAF Foundation supports the public health system to enable people to live healthy and productive lives. This area of work was born from the work in the health sector our organisations has been doing for just over twenty years.

OLIVE LEAF Foundation develops sustainable community owned and driven wellness systems, in collaboration with local government and non-government partners. Even though our experience informs local Implementation processes, even though informed by our experience, is very contextual and depends largely on local actors to design and sustain.

Capacity Development

Capacity development is essential in the development process. OLIVE LEAF Foundation builds the capacity of individuals, organisations and communities by focussing on skills, knowledge and relationships.

Besides the formal training and mentoring we do with individuals and organisations, community capacity is enhanced through an increase in available social capital. This is done through relationship building, identification and exploration of community concerns, decision making that leads to action, reflection and review.

Livelihoods and Local Economic Development

Local economies are not creating enough wealth to adequately meet the needs of all. OLIVE LEAF Foundation builds local economies and livelihoods to improve the quality of life for all through. We do this by:

Supporting the economic development potential of areas where we work;

Supporting entrepreneurs and new enterprises;

Assisting families to secure a sustainable livelihood.

Human Settlements

Human settlements in Africa are unable to cope with the effects of urbanisation within the context of the sustainability crisis. OLIVE LEAF Foundation participates in the creation of sustainable human settlements in urban & rural spaces by:

Building social capital to create a common vision for local built environments through processes of community engagement;

Facilitating the development of local infrastructure;

Working with partners in Government and Civil Society to create an enabling regulatory framework to promote sustainable human settlements.