MADaboutART, pioneered in South Africa, is a grassroots charity that seeks to fight HIV through art and education. Their cause is threefold; reducing stigma and providing a safe refuge for vulnerable children, creating economic opportunity through art and tourism, and supporting young people to make a difference through their experiential learning curriculum. The past few months have seen MADaboutART deal with a number of challenges due to the pandemic, from the lack of tourism to dealing with the impact of coronavirus on the existing health crises of malnutrition and HIV in South Africa. Despite this, MADaboutART is committed to empowering children and creating lasting positive change, and has adapted quickly to educate and safeguard their community during this time.

Protecting their community during coronavirus

The financial impact of coronavirus in their township has been significant, leading to a lack of school meals provided and wages being stopped for many families, but MADaboutART have stepped in once again to fight for their community. By moving quickly to launch a coronavirus relief campaign on their website, they have collected donations to help provide food,  cloth masks and soap to protect their community. During 6 months of lockdown they have provided more than 19,000 meals to hungry mouths, young and old, as well as 2 cloth masks and a bar of soap to more than 500 people in their community.  Find out more about how MADaboutART are supporting their community and donate to their fund here. 

"ToucanTech offers a grass roots charity like MADaboutART a simple, one-stop-

system to manage our website, donations and communications - exactly what we

need with limited internal resources. They have helped us to keep our operations

running during the pandemic and supported us to set up a Coronavirus campaign to

raise funds to keep feeding and educating children at our MAD centre."

Elizabeth Brown, Trustee, MADaboutART

Beaty’s story

One of the most captivating stories of MADaboutART is Beaty’s journey and her campaign to continue changing children’s lives. Beaty was one of the first children to join MADaboutART in 2002, and her story explains how she became the first youth ambassador of the programme, after completing the entire MAD curriculum. She is now a powerful advocate for people living with HIV, and cares passionately about building a brighter future for children in her community. She continues to inspire support from around the world, and to open the eyes of those who visit the charity. 

Creating local opportunities for entrepreneurship 

MADaboutART have created opportunities by offering fully-guided tours of their township in action, which can be booked on their website. This has helped to stimulate the local economy and provide an income for local youth, and all profits are reinvested to fight against HIV. Visitors can find a place of friendship and resilience as they explore the diversity of township life. 

Despite limited internal resources, MADaboutART has used their compelling stories to generate support across the world, enabling them to support and protect their community in difficult circumstances, and we hope they will be able to open their doors again very soon.

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