Preschool
Ages three to six in graded classes through Grade R, with breakfast, lunch, lessons, play and rest, plus care until parents finish work.
Mandela Village, South Africa
Helping children in South Africa get a real start
Zonke Kids supports Zonke Izizwe, a Christian preschool that has cared for children in Mandela Village since 2011. We give them a safe classroom, two hot meals a day, and an education their families could not otherwise afford. We run entirely on donations.
Zonke Izizwe at a glance
2011The preschool opened its doors with just 15 children.
1,000+Children taught, fed, and cared for since opening.
70Children currently attend our preschool, ages 3 to 6.
2Hot meals provided to every child each school day.
Who we are
A Christian preschool serving families in need
Zonke Izizwe means all nations. The name was chosen on purpose: Mandela Village is largely made up of families from neighboring African countries who came to South Africa seeking asylum and a decent education for their children. A school called “all nations” was a statement about who was welcome.
We are a Christian school. Alongside English, reading, writing and maths, our teachers share the love of Jesus with the children in their care — through prayer, singing, Bible stories and the ordinary daily work of looking after them well.
Unemployment in Mandela Village is high and so is drug use among young people. For fifteen years this has been a safe, predictable place for a child to spend the day.
Why early education matters
Most South African children cannot read by Grade 4
81%
of Grade 4 learners in South Africa cannot read for meaning.
Children start failing around the age of ten, get discouraged, and many leave school in their early teens — which closes most doors before they are old enough to open any. A child who cannot read by ten rarely catches up.
So we start at three. By the time our pupils graduate to Grade 1 they can write their own names, know the alphabet, count to twenty, and hold a conversation in English. Teachers at the neighboring primary schools tell us they can spot a Zonke child.
Source: Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), 2021.
What we do
Services we provide
After-school programs
Tutoring and reading support for Grades 1 to 3, a boys' soccer club, a girls' dance and aerobics club, and a youth club for teenagers who need somewhere to be.
Orphan care
Practical help for orphaned children in our own community: food, clothing, school uniforms, school fees, medical care and dependable adult mentoring throughout the year.
Community hall
Adult education classes, a women's business club, Sunday church services, parent workshops and community events fill the hall most days of the week.
Our story
A legacy passed from father to daughter
Zonke Izizwe was founded in 2011 by Randy Finkbeiner, an American who had spent five years in KwaMhlanga caring for people dying of AIDS-related illness. Watching young mothers die and their children left behind, he turned from care to prevention and opened a school.
Randy died in 2022. His adopted daughter Idah Vilakazi — from KwaMhlanga herself — took over as director, and under her leadership the school has grown and steadied.
Gallery
Life at Zonke
Our people
Meet the Zonke team
Teachers for each age group, an administrator, an after-school teacher, a cook and a nurse — plus volunteers from the village.
Support Zonke Kids
Your gift keeps the classroom open
Zonke Izizwe runs on donations. What you give pays the teachers, buys the food, and keeps the lights on for seventy children in Mandela Village.