Giving Compass' Take:

• Hlumelo Siphe Williams explains how Lalela was founded to serve poor children in South Africa by helping them to create and sell art of all kinds. 

• How can funders identify local projects like this one? What are the advantages of funding grassroots solutions to problems around the world? 

• Fund arts education for Vietnamese children. 

Meaning “to listen” in Zulu, Lalela was founded in 2010 by two friends, Andrea Kerzner and Sandy Tabatznik, who saw how powerful art can be for children.

Lalela was established in the wake of the World Cup, when children were on holiday and had no place to go.

“When we opened in 2010, it was during the World Cup,” Kerzner recalls. “Kids were out of school for six weeks at the time. So Lalela became a kind of haven for them.”

The kids they worked with were extremely vulnerable; exposed to every kind of abuse and neglect possible. Lalela became a sanctuary for them, and allowed for them to express themselves through art.

Lalela initially started with 20 kids a week, now they have over 5,000 kids coming in.

Lalela’s art curriculum focuses on all facets of art, including poetry, acting, music, and visual arts. They use the children’s expression of art to help them manifest their goals and dreams, and allow them to see that it is possible to reimagine the kind of future they want for themselves, despite their circumstances.

Read the full article about empowering young people through art by Hlumelo Siphe Williams at Global Citizen.