Kranshoek Projects

Youth Focus 2018

See the link below portraying some of the fun everyone had during the Youth Festival that took place in the small Griqua community of Kranshoek near Plettenberg Bay on 15 and 16 June 2018, the annual Youth Day in South Africa.

https://showme.co.za/plett/events-entertainment/kranshoek-community-project-give-thanks-after-the-fires/

We are looking forward to continue to work with these stunning young people and youth leaders over the next couple of weeks and into the future.

The Footsteps Foundation is planning a follow-up “Youth Focus 2018 Winter School” to take place during the winter school holidays.

All participants will also be profiled to determine their aptitude to various types of careers, interests, passions, and to help guide the realisation of their dreams for their future.

The Winter School will take place over two days, including a wide range of developmental and fun events ranging from talks by experts on topics that are current and relevant to issues young people are battling with, sports events and cultural workshops and competitions.

Cultural workshops will include dance, drama, music, singing, film and poetry/story writing, and many more surprises…..

Entrepreneurial Development

The Footsteps Foundation is working closely with the current and future small business owners of Kranshoek, to create a sense of self-sustainability, pride and growth.

During our workshops we are listening to people’s dreams for the future, and helping them to turn these into viable, sustainable, and profitable businesses.  A great sense of excitement is created as we are connecting businesses with the market possibilities out there, following a step by step process of empowerment and ownership – not only of their business ideas, but also of their environment and their broader responsibility of their young people futures.

Ratelgat Pilgrimage

Yolanda Johnson, a local dressmaker from Kranshoek, and upcoming community leader, has  a passion for the young people, not only of the Griqua community of Kranshoek, but also the very poor communities in De Aar.

She has taken it upon herself to raise funds for enabling 16 Griqua youths from De Aar to make the annual pilgrimage to Ratelgat.

Read more about the annual Ratelgat event on the Jumpstarter Crowdfunding platform which was used to raise awareness about the Griqua pilgrimage traditions and to help make this journey happen for these young people.

Watch out for this event in 2019.

Ratelgat Pilgrimage 2019

Kranshoek Horses Initiative

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” Mohamed Ghandi.

On 7 June 2017 our town, Plettenberg Bay, South Africa suffered severely by the recent Garden Route fire crises.

On 10 June 2017, the people from Kranshoek, a local settlement, whom were also severely affected asked for help to move their horses and life stock, to another area where they would be safer from the roads as fences were destroyed, plus they had no grazing.  The community is still battling to rebuild part much of what was lost in the fires, including homes, fences and grazing fields.

Lee Naude, the champion behind these initiatives, and activist for horses and their communities in South Africa, is a well-known personality in horse circles in South Africa and co-founder of EquineSA.

Lee now resides in Kranshoek, and is making excellent progress with developing young people who not only care for their horses, but have also learnt to participate in show jumping events.

Lee has been working fervently and non-stop with very little funds, with only the help of the community and well-doers, mostly local horse owners in the area, often in crisis mode, for the survival of the community and its horses.  Her long term vision and passion is to improve the conditions of both the Kranshoek horses and the Kranshoek community.

With the help of the Footsteps Foundation, Lee founded the Africa Hoofprint Foundation NPC, which is co-hosting an event with EquineSA on Saturday 30 June 2018, Celebrating Beauty from Ashes, Healing Africa, through a Plett Eco Fun Hike and Ride.

Lee’s Kranshoek story of survival following the Knysna fires

“Volunteers arranged transport and we moved 7 of the horses to Stonefield Polo & Equestrian Centre. A couple of weeks later we moved another 2 horses to where we could care for them.

We were astonished by the lack of knowledge and resources available to these horses and their owners. We decided to offer the owners of the horses in our care, some training, and assistance to help the horses, as their handling were not in a humane manner. We started with some basic theory training at my house and on the second session, when I wanted to get to know the horses through some basic horsemanship and groundwork, I noticed that the horses were severely traumatised when handled and some of them became aggressive when their people approached. Not one of them were comfortable with people, they took to fight, flight or freeze mode as soon as people approached them.

We decided to stop all interaction with them and we are currently rehabilitating them, restoring trust and confidence.

The next step was to develop the Owner’s skills with correct handling. We started meeting with 5 of the children to see how we could help them to develop their Horsemanship skills and in getting to know them and from being a qualified Equine Assisted Psychology Horse Specialist, realised that we will not be able to teach the kids unless their environment became positive, calm and assertive. The parents are excited about our vision to develop the next generation, especially since they have a proud Horse Heritage, and this herd directly assents from the original Griekwa people and their horses, which were lead down to Kranshoek, by their Profit, “Die Kneg” from the Western Cape.”

See The Story of the Griqua Re-visited.

On a daily basis, not including the fire and the fences being burned down, these horses have to endure theft by their communities juvenile delinquents, illegal racing, returning with injuries and death (refer photo of Donna), abuse by strangers and starvation now that there is not enough grazing. The organisation which tried to act as the local welfare organisation does not have the skills to help and decided that the good quality grass such as Lucerne donated, will only be allocated to Thoroughbred horses.

The vision is to restore dignity to the horses and their people, especially at-risk Youth, to reset the balance between human and nature in an area where horses were and could be again, a huge part of their future, not only as transportation, but as healing components, farm work, and sport, but also as part of building their economy with a positive carbon footprint (hoofprint), and open up the equestrian world, previously perceived as elitist, along with its possibilities for careers, employment, sport and sustainable green living.

Horses in our Care

Donna, Lilly (Donna’s Foal), Flicka, Joy, Clover, Roxy, Gorgeous (Roxy’s foal), Blaze, Jupiter.

Funding support

The projects are using the Jumpstarter Crowdfunding platform, to attract funding and support from the broader local and global community, for people to access an opportunity to make a difference to these people and their horses, providing an opportunity to provide support through either funding or direct participation and personal involvement.