In the heart of Masiphumelele townships, lives a beautiful and empowering creative hub…
This inspiring organisation, started by the beautiful Yandiswa Mazwane in 2017, works to provide a safe, supportive and educational environment where community members can use the power of creativity and art to overcome their daily challenges.
4 years ago, Yandiswa arrived in Cape Town all the way from the Eastern Cape and worked as a beach cleaner on Muizenberg beach, earning R35 a day. What an incredibly far way she has come. Using found waste, Mama Yandi designs and creates phenomenal artworks, supplying both national and international retailers. From this, she has created the most beautiful, and truthful creative entity that has been able to help so many individuals.
Since then, Mama Yandi has become a qualified art therapist, using this special skill to help others. The organisation places focus on activities such as sport, art, and after-school care classes with the purpose of preserving and nourishing the Masi youth.
As The Good Machine, we are currently in the process of building a Masiphumelele community program - in which Yandi and her Creative Hub play an important role in the way forward!
Besides the above, after seeing the urgent need for food during lockdown, Mama Yandi and Masi Creative started a feeding scheme for young children, providing an estimated 1,100 meals per day since the start of lockdown with seven different feeding stations. This is all thanks to food donations and the amazing Mamas that wake up at 6 am every day to prepare this food. They also assemble and deliver around 140 veggie boxes per week to the elderly people of the community.
The meaning of Masiphumelele in Xhosa is “we will succeed”, and Masi Creative couldn’t have spoken to this in a more perfect way!
Yandi is by far one of the most humble women I have ever met, and I feel extremely privileged having had the opportunity to meet her and see the selfless work she does for those around her…what an incredible initiative.