About Akani - Overview
With a large squatter community, certain areas of Diepsloot are a sad but common remnant of South Africa’s past. It is a community in distress. Despite the growth of permanent homes and structures, including schools, clinics and a handful of churches, ‘shelter’ for many consists of the shacks they have erected from zinc, plastic materials, wood and cardboard. Whilst electricity is supplied not all have the means to use it and those in squatter camps are not connected at all. Unemployment is high and crime is rife, with murder, rape, theft and abuse of women and children a reality of the environment, a reality from which the children are not spared and are often the victims. At Akani Diepsloot Foundation we believe there is nothing wrong in being born a ‘nobody’, as long as you die a “somebody”, hence our mission – with us ‘EVERY CHILD CAN.’
Our children have a right to education, recreational facilities, adequate nutrition, peace and good health. And they have a right to protection from poverty and disease, abuse and exploitation, suffering and neglect, violence and hatred.
