South African pupils given a solid foundation as Mellon Educate volunteers transform township schools

Mellon Educate, an international charity founded by Irish philanthropist Niall Mellon, has brought pride and joy to the community of Lwandle in Strand, Western Cape.

On 21 November 2025, Mellon Educate handed over newly built classrooms at ACJ Phakade Primary School. Running from 15 to 22 November, the charity organisation's annual Building Blitz brought together 450 volunteers from South Africa, Ireland, the UK and beyond to build six new Grade R classrooms with toilets and storage at the school, along with a literacy hub, learning support classroom, additional classrooms for grades 5 to 7, a feeding kitchen, canopies and a playground.

Parents were at the school to show their appreciation to the many volunteers who worked tirelessly. A parent, referred to as Ms Mxegwana, spoke to the volunteers and expressed her gratitude, saying that they had done something incredible for the community. “We are really grateful. You don't know the amount of joy that you have brought to this community. I am also thankful to the teachers who promptly engaged with this; they looked at my child and saw a need and became a parent… I don’t even have many words besides ‘thank you’,” said Mxegwana.

The organisation has also built 10 new classrooms at Simanyene High School, including covered canopies, an outdoor gym, a feeding kitchen and a new toilet block to accommodate the growing pupil numbers.

Recognising the literacy emergency, with more than three-quarters of Grade 4s unable to read for meaning, the group has given schools the tools to help learners.

Read more: International study shows most Grade 4s in South Africa cannot read for meaning

Daily Maverick spoke to the volunteer head of communication for Mellon Educate, Sippora Veen, who said the charity was founded 23 years ago by Irish entrepreneur and philanthropist Niall Mellon. Mellon built 250,000 houses and is now focused on improving school infrastructure and learning. “Over the past four years we have built an infrastructure and employed 110 tutors who themselves now have a learning path. They work with the children in terms of literacy, and we’ve seen from impact studies of two of the education systems that we built two years ago that the level of reading and comprehension has already increased by 51%; it’s such a huge impact,” said Veen.

Ninety percent of Mellon Educate’s tutors were previously unemployed, turning the initiative into a job-creation engine for local young people.

Veen also said the community and the Western Cape Education Department’s support were something to be proud of. “Our presence here brings attention to the school and to the local community in a way that they don’t normally get… It creates a sense of pride that they have the opportunity to show what they’ve done here, built a school, and the sense of pride that the kids have in the local community has a knock-on effect.”

Throughout the handover process, pupils and teachers were filled with happiness, singing and hugging each other while expressing their gratitude to the many volunteers who built the classrooms. The acting principal of ACJ Phakade Primary School, Mandisa Lehoke, told Daily Maverick this went beyond what they could have imagined.

“This is something I also cannot even explain. We are so excited about the things they did for us, especially in our communities and the conditions we are in. When we spoke to parents about what Mellon Educate is trying to do in our school, parents and the learners themselves became excited because having a Grade R class inside will make our foundation solid, as the curriculum will be manageable. This helped employment within the community, and now we have Grade Rs, so it will allow the department to bring in more teachers,” said Lehoke.

Since it was established, Mellon Educate has served more than 36 schools and 100,000 children. Today, its Literacy Hubs serve more than 4,000 children across 17 schools, supported by the Western Cape Education Department.

One of the workers, Theo Chumani Tyeni from Lwandle, praised the Mellon Educate charity.

“I was helping build the kitchen and a few Grade R classrooms. I see this as a great initiative because we will now see children have a bright future, and the fact that this was able to create employment for us in the community – I was one of those people who benefited. To the people of Ireland, thank you for this, and I wish they could continue helping people,” said Tyeni.

James Dunne, who has been with Mellon Educate for 20 years and has volunteered in many initiatives, gave thanks to the charity and role players for the ACJ Phakade Primary School project: “I know it is my 20th trip, but it does not really matter; what matters is that you are here this week, and you make me a better person, and I feel better for doing this every year.”

About the next projects that Mellon Educate wants to do in the coming years, Veen said the next target is expansion into the National Programme, with national partnerships under development to scale the model across nine provinces. Mellon Educate aimed to reach one million children across the country by 2035, establishing 600 community-based hubs and employing 10,000 young literacy tutors. DM