The Goedgedacht Trust was established in 1993 around the donation of a 1704 farm called Goedgedacht, some 85km north of Cape Town.

The  objective of the Trust has been to make a contribution to the transformation of impoverished rural communities by addressing poverty, particularly poverty that affects the lives of rural children and youth. 

The Trusts aim has been to develop a creative, effective, sustainable and replicable model for community development in rural areas, which offers children and youth safe spaces and opportunities to break out of the cycle of poverty that have trapped their families for generations.

For many generations rural families, in the wine growing part of South Africa, have borne the brunt of slavery, colonialism, apartheid and the scourge of the “dop” system.

The results have been high levels of poverty, hunger, domestic violence, unemployment and FASD (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder).  

When the Trust was established children from farms in the area either did not go to school or dropped out early to work on farms as labourers.

In the early 1990s 95% of the youth did not make it to secondary education. New legislation after 1994 prevented children from working on farms and this provided them with a workable opportunity.