About Educo AFRICA & our 30-year history

Welcome to a little window into our world at Educo Africa! We are a team; we are led and managed entirely by ex-participants of our courses with careful governance and oversight from a 'hands-on' board of trustees. But that’s about how we do things, what really matters is why we do what we do and who benefits from our programmes and interventions. 

Educo Africa was founded following a rallying call from Nelson Mandela who challenged individuals and organisations to come together and build solutions for underserved, underprivileged and vulnerable young South Africans: 

“The youth of our country are the valued possession of the nation. Without them there can be no future. 

Their needs are immense and urgent…” 

President Nelson Mandela, State of the Nation Address, 24 May 1994

The founders of Educo Africa heeded the call and in the early 1990s, at the dawn of the new South Africa, built an organisation and team to help at-risk youth explore their needs, understand their issues and development obstacles and plug into resources to assist them plan a new direction. Educo Africa was born with a specific Trust Deed:

“An educational and charitable institution of a public character to promote the spirit of ‘Ubuntu’, 

and to encourage in young South Africans the development of a sense of vision, initiative and personal responsibility, with particular emphasis upon a concern for the conservation of the environment, community-building, and cross-cultural co-operation”. 

Desmond Tutu agreed to be our Patron. 

Over the past thirty years Educo Africa has perpetually reinvented itself to stay relevant with the courses and support services it offers but always still based on the wilderness experience - out of the city, 

out of the comfort areas of the known and with an appreciation of the role that nature still plays in even 

the most complex of city souls.