Struisbaai Child and Youth Centre

A little bit about us, what we do, why we do it and the many hands that go into it...

13 years ago, in the year 2000, what started out as an intention to relocate their family to the picturesque southern most tip of Africa turned into a life long challenge and commitment when the founding couple of Struisbaai child and youth centre, Clementine and Peter Arendse(Superintendents and Founders), stopped along the way to assist an injured and bleeding resident of Struisbaai. John Booysen. This made them realize that there is much more to this fishing hamlet than just holiday and fun. They began to see and realize the need of this historic fishing village and their vices which has been gripping this community in poverty , substance abuse and learning disabilities.

Soon they entered people’s homes to see 1st hand what the challenges were and their hearts opened towards the children as they were the most adversely effected sufferers. They started in Tannie Maria’s house, they gathered a group of 13 children then introduced a recreation activities, spiritual outreach and a feeding program. This soon caught on and the numbers doubled, trebled and kept on growing. Later some of these children became youth as they were now in their teens and upper teens. It then became necessary to adjust their programs to suit the needs of both children and youth. Realizing it was not possible to do this on their own, they began to attract the attention and assistance of other people in the community as well as from Cape Town. where they originate from.