Mamelodi East is a fast-growing part of the Mamelodi township to the east of the City of Tshwane. It combines more established neighbourhoods with new settlements; stable informal settlements where people have land rights, with newly occupied spaces where people lack land rights; and characterized by vast social and economic vulnerability.
Mamelodi East is also home to the Mamelodi Campus of the University of Pretoria. This is our base as the Urban Studio, from where we do our organizing, networking and capacity-building processes.
The Urban Studio takes a slightly different shape in Mamelodi East. Here we focus on walking alongside NGOs and CBOs, supporting them through capacity-building and mentoring, encouraging local network-formation (bonding), as well as connecting them strategically to wider existing networks (binding). The 94 NGOs and CBOs we engage with deal with a range of issues, including youth substance use, early childhood development, after-school care, food gardens at local schools, social enterprise development, HIV/AIDS care, physical or mental disability, and so forth.
