Lefika La Phodiso - Community Art Counselling & Training Institute

Lefika La Phodiso - Community Art Counselling & Training Institute Lefika La Phodiso (‘The Rock of Holding’) Community Arts Counselling and Training Institute

Behind every statistic is a child somebody noticed. Swipe for three of them. ➡️A love letter written to a child who coul...
18/08/2026

Behind every statistic is a child somebody noticed. Swipe for three of them. ➡️

A love letter written to a child who couldn't yet see their own worth. A withdrawn teenager who became the last one to leave the room. A hard conversation that turned a bully into an ally.

None of these make the annual report as anything more than a checkbox ticked. We wanted to tell them properly, just once.

We ask our facilitators to grade us honestly, every single term. Here's the report card. 📋Swipe through for the full pic...
16/08/2026

We ask our facilitators to grade us honestly, every single term. Here's the report card. 📋

Swipe through for the full picture — how they rated the programme's impact on participants, how supported they felt doing this work, and the eleven things that happen in every single session, from a hot meal to weekly clinical supervision.

Because a programme like this isn't just the art. It's everything built around it.

If you want to know what's really on children's minds, don't ask directly — hand them a paintbrush and listen to what co...
14/08/2026

If you want to know what's really on children's minds, don't ask directly — hand them a paintbrush and listen to what comes out. 🎨

Over six months of open-ended check-ins, these are the themes our facilitators saw most: emotional regulation, identity, safety, and — impossible to ignore this year — GBV and consent.

This is the unfiltered version of "how are the kids doing." We think it's worth sharing as-is.

This is what peer mentoring sounds like when it's working. 🗣️Our PhePha Peers group spent the term rehearsing the hard s...
12/08/2026

This is what peer mentoring sounds like when it's working. 🗣️

Our PhePha Peers group spent the term rehearsing the hard stuff — how to sit with a friend who's struggling, how to open a difficult conversation, when to ask an adult for help.

By the last session, the shift was in their own words.

Confidence isn't just something we hope for. It's something we build, one rehearsed conversation at a time.

12/08/2026

The City of Joburg has once again switched off the electricity to the Children's Memorial Institute!

They claim the Gauteng Health Department owes them R45 million for electricity for their Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital Laundry (which is on our property), but Health disputes this amount and will not pay!

In the meantime our vulnerable, disabled and neurodiverse children must suffer. More than 2000 CHILDREN WILL LOSE DAILY ACCESS TO EDUCATION, SUPPORT, CARE & FOOD! THIS IS A HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION!!

Thousands of Gauteng children will be impacted by this decision to switch off our electricity:
- Childline Gauteng fields 800 calls daily from children experiencing abuse, neglect or exploitation.
- has 365+ daily learners.
- The Dental Clinic sees over 50 children daily with acute dental issues which can be life threatening.
- ACFS Community Education provides 13 000 meals to children daily across Gauteng.
- Afrika Tikkun Foundation has 700 daily learners who receive 2000 cooked meals.
- Daycare for 18 significantly disabled children and training for families at Malamulele Onward.
- The Teddy Bear Foundation South Africa protecting child victims of abuse.
- Fight With Insight has 140 children accessing daily meals and psych-social support.
- Johannesburg Parent & Child Counselling Centre - JPCCC offers daily counselling to children and families.
- Lefika La Phodiso - Community Art Counselling & Training Institute caring for 60+ children daily with meal and therapeutic support.
- Thusanani Children's Foundation providing therapy to disabled children.
- Sensory-Space provides therapeutic sensory support for neurodiverse and traumatised children.
- Abba Specialist Adoption & Social Services supporting over 100 families in the area.
- Hotel Hope providing homes for more than 36 orphaned and abandoned babies.
- emergency accommodation for children at risk.
- 100 children attend ECD and after care at , Innovation Of Excellence and .
- Child rights advocacy work from Gauteng Children's Rights Committee, , , Babies Matter, and Courage Child Protection & Empowerment.

We touch more than 700 000 Childrens lives every year through the Children’s Memorial Institute! Gauteng Government and the City of Johannesburg know this, but have still decided to SWITCH US OFF! Shame on them 😢💙

Six months of showing up. 45 sessions, 30 facilitators, and a 4.8/5 rating from the people doing the work. Here's to the...
10/08/2026

Six months of showing up. 45 sessions, 30 facilitators, and a 4.8/5 rating from the people doing the work. Here's to the next six. 💛

A very special morning spent in Hillbrow! Thank you to the Lefika teens for making us proud. Lefika La Phodiso, by the c...
08/08/2026

A very special morning spent in Hillbrow! Thank you to the Lefika teens for making us proud. Lefika La Phodiso, by the community, for the community! 🩵

Keep an eye on the socials for more amazing photos of the Hey Hillbrow Let’s Dlala! Parade 2026.

Swipe to see where we've been this year. ➡️Between January and June, our facilitators showed up for children aged 6 to 1...
08/08/2026

Swipe to see where we've been this year. ➡️

Between January and June, our facilitators showed up for children aged 6 to 18+, across ten different programme strands — from daily Open Studio to peer mentoring to drama therapy.

Slide 2 breaks down exactly who we reached. Slide 3 is the part that matters most: 40 children identified and connected to extra support this year, because a facilitator noticed something and acted on it.

Six months of showing up, one age group and one strand at a time.

Not every lesson is spoken. Some are painted. 🖌️This term, one of our Open Studio groups worked through a difficult but ...
06/08/2026

Not every lesson is spoken. Some are painted. 🖌️

This term, one of our Open Studio groups worked through a difficult but necessary topic — consent, body autonomy, and the right to say no. For one participant, it was the first time she'd heard that framed as *her* right.

By the end of the session, this was on her page.

We don't share this to shock — we share it because it's working. Art gives children a way to say the things they don't yet have words for.


GBVF Response Fund1

Six months down, six to go. 🎨From January to June, our afterschool programme kept showing up — every day, after the bell...
04/08/2026

Six months down, six to go. 🎨

From January to June, our afterschool programme kept showing up — every day, after the bell, for the kids who need it most.

45 sessions. 30 facilitators. Countless small breakthroughs that don't always make it into a report.

Here's the first half of 2026, by the numbers.

Address

CMI Building, 2nd Floor, Corner Hillside And Empire Road, Parktown, JHB
Johannesburg
2001

Opening Hours

Monday 09:00 - 16:00
Tuesday 09:00 - 16:00
Wednesday 09:00 - 16:00
Thursday 09:00 - 16:00
Friday 09:00 - 16:00
Saturday 10:00 - 12:00

Telephone

+27650942152

Website

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