Eyethu Hout Bay Skate Park
The Eyethu Skatepark, a community-led initiative, supported by Rotary Club of Hout Bay, took over 4 years to come to fruition, after the Eyethu Hout Bay Skatepark Project co-founder, Matthew Johnson, posted on Facebook the need for a community skatepark in the area. Rotary Club of Hout Bay was at the time looking for a new project to support and pursued the community call for a much-needed safe, recreational space for local skaters to call home.
Eyethu is a Nguni word meaning “our”. It is also an affirmation of shared ownership or partnership.
The skate park is at the new Hout Bay Sports Ground and aims to help create a truly public space for both community use and to promote youth development. A space needed where people can share and experience common interests. A new South African Space. A safe space for all, from all walks of life.
The site is located at the confluence point of three different demographic areas in the centre of Hout Bay, providing an opportunity for integration through the creation of a new South African space where people can share and experience common interests through skating and other sporting activities.
The state-of-the-art skate park is generous in size, at 950 sqm, and took over 6 months to build and cost R1,5 million, raised through a crowdfunding campaign, a golf day, grass-root fundraising and the generous contributions from various Rotary Clubs. The largest part of the donation came from Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages.
Operation Fire-Stop
On 11 March 2017, a large fire ravaged through the Imizamo Yethu informal settlement in Hout Bay, South Africa, killing four people. A total of 2194 informal dwellings were destroyed, and over 9700 people were displaced.
Through the generosity of other Rotary clubs and a few private donors, the Rotary Club of Hout Bay established a fire relief fund to target medium to long term fire relief. HBVEMS (Hout Bay Volunteer EMS) was identified as being in the position to assist us in training for the unique requirements of our communities through their EFAR platform.
They coordinate the training of basic Fire Fighting, and other emergency training on an ongoing basis allowing for a minimum of 60 community members to be trained per year as well as a “train-the-trainer” programme to ensure ongoing sustainability. The investment by Rotary Club of Hout Bay in this initiative will go a long way to ensuring that the devastation caused by recent fires is not repeated in the future.
HBVEMS coordinate and make available to local communities professional training to enable them to not only prevent and contain fires within their communities, but also to deal with resultant burns and trauma pending medical intervention. Whilst training is presented by an accredited external provider, HBVEMS are responsible for the logistics of the training.
Main Road Clinic – Coolamon Rotary Club
Rotary Club of Hout Bay is actively involved with the Main Road Clinic, having helped build the clinic over 15 years ago. This critical project in Hout Bay was also funded with the help of our partner club Coolamon Rotary Club in Australia.
Ambulance
Many years ago, Rotary Club of Hout Bay organized a fundraising drive to purchase HBVEMS first ambulance. We also raised funds for and donated a heart monitor and defibrillator for the HBVEMS. In 2025, Rotary assisted to finance the refurbishment of the HBVEMS ambulance existing stretcher.
We facilitated a donated ultra-sonic scanner (thanks to a Dutch sponsor) to be located in Victoria Hospital, replacing a 20-year old machine.
In 2025 the Rotary Club of Hout Bay sponsored the refurbishment on the HBVEMS Stryker stretcher.
Family Health Day
Since 2017, Rotary Club of Hout Bay holds a Family Health Day to provide a wide-range of free health services to underserved members of our community, mainly from Hangberg and Imizamo Yethu. Unfortunately, Family Health Days were unable to be held in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid.
In recent years, the Family Health Day has been hosted by RCHB in partnership with Students´ Health And Welfare Centres Organization (SHAWCO) of the University of Cape Town. It also involves the University of Western Cape Faculty of Dentistry, Jonga Trust, I Love Boobies, Community Cohesion, Hangberg Dreams, the Department of Social Services, Church Table View, Funda Kunye, TB/HIV Care, and other NGOs. Mobile clinics offer services in areas such as HIV/AIDS testing, drug-counselling, vaccinations, basic health and dental check-ups, maternal/child support and eyesight testing. A fully stocked dispensary ensured patients received prescribed medication at no cost.
In September 2025, over 424 patients registered for care. The day was about more than medical treatment. It was a day filled with community spirit, educational workshops and activities for children. Clay Café and Massimo´s kindly provided food for patients, health workers and other volunteers.
Any queries should be addressed to Mr Ralph Tobergte, email: tobergte@usa.net.
Nonceba Family Counselling Centre
Ashley Kaimowitz, a Rotary Exchange student, was tragically killed by a drunk driver in Cape Town. The Rotary Clubs of Hout Bay, Sea Point, Kirstenbosch and Claremont established a memorial fund. The fund was to complete a dream Ashley had, to build a centre in Khayelitsha for the counselling of raped and abused children. Ashley’s Dream came true and The Nonceba Family Counselling Centre was completed.
The Nonceba Family Counselling Centre started in 1997 as a two-room consulting practice run by volunteers from the community when they became aware of extent of the child abuse. Private Individuals, companies and Rotary rallied to support this community initiative.
The challenge of an over-burdened police force and an under-resourced state welfare system, resulted in delays in responding to the high number of child abuse and domestic violence cases in the area.
The ability to respond quickly and appropriately is essential in stabilising survivors and supporting the healing process. The Nonceba Family Counselling Centre was born from this need for immediate and appropriate intervention.
For more information please visit: https://nonceba.org/background/
ABC For Life Classroom Upgrade
ABC for Life, works with Foundation Phase learners in Grades 1 and 2 who are falling behind and not coping in class. ABC´s work it’s about giving struggling learners the focused literacy support they need to catch up, thrive, and unlock their full potential. You can learn more about their impactful work at https://www.abcforlife.org/. Thanks to Principal Mr. Ryan Crouse, two classrooms at the Oranjekloof Moravian Primary School, in Hout Bay, were allocated for this initiative. One of the classrooms needed refurbishing to serve as the Literacy Centre. This marks ABC for Life’s fourth school partnership, with most learners coming from the nearby Imizamo Yethu community.
In partnership with ABC for Life, the Rotary Club of Hout Bay proudly supported the launch of the new Literacy Centre. In August and September 2025, members of Hout Bay Rotary, Rotaract, and Interact came together for two spirited mornings of teamwork and transformation—refurbishing and upgrading the ABC for Life classroom.
A heartfelt thank you to our generous supporters Peninsula Glass, HiDe Flooring, Jack Hammer, and Hout Bay Mica whose contributions made this transformation possible.
Rotary Christmas Events
Each year the Rotary Club of Hout Bay plans parties, goodie bags, and special meals for:
- Caring Hands of Hangberg Feeding Scheme
- The Main Road Clinic
- The Stein House Elders
- The Abbeyfield retirement Home "York House"
Covid 19 Reaction Task Team
A dedicated Covid 19 Reaction Task Team of five started on 12 April 2020 to secure funds, develop systems and identify areas of focus. Limited resources required limiting areas of focus so we concentrated on our Rotary youth clubs, bursary students, traditional beneficiaries, fellow Rotarians and families.
A call for financial assistance was put out to our members on 21st April which together with R10,000-00 from district realized an amount of R326,116-85.
Our project officially shut down at the end of October 2020. Over the 5 ½ months, we spent R325,708-47;
– Fed 278 people in over 50 families every two weeks {assuming each R500 voucher feeds a family of 4 for two weeks, this equals +/- 40,026 meals over the course of the project}.
– Supplied 300 KN95 masks to the Main Road Clinic.
– Supplied 1,392 washable masks to our beneficiaries and their families.
– Supplied several 5 lt. bottles of Sanitizer.
– Supplied 12 no-touch thermometers to 10 crèches, Main Road Clinic & the HB Fire station.
– Supplied 50 disposable masks to our HB Fire Station for use in their trauma unit.
