The Grassroots Youth Academy is run by the Grassroots Youth Academy Trust, a registered Trust (Master’s Reference No IT002702/2016C), whose object is to offer educational opportunities, tutoring, and sporting tuition and training to the children of Khayelitsha and the greater Cape Town area. The Trust is also registered with the Department of Social Development as a Non-Profit Organisation (registration no. 199-449 NPO) and with SARS and an NPO.
The trustees of the Trust are Jongi Kanko, Luzuko Dyantyi, Grant Quixley, Matthew Blackman, Rachel Kanko and Cassian Coquelle. The Trust operates from premises it owns in Makhaza, Khayelitsha.
Every Saturday morning and Wednesday evening, children ranging from 5 to 18 years old gather for tuition (provided by volunteer tutors). In addition, Jongi offers boxing and fitness training from a training gym at the Makhaza premises. Jongi is a retired professional boxer and a trained professional boxing coach.
Grant Quixley is an advocate at the Cape Bar. He is an avid cyclist who has completed 10 Cape Town Cycle Tours and the ABSA Cape Epic.
The Grassroots Youth Academy launched its cycling programme in mid-2017. Every Saturday, up to 10 high school children participate in training rides on bicycles sponsored by the Pedal Power Association and Qhubeka. Our cyclists participated in their first competitive event – the Stellenbosch Cycle Tour in December 2017. They have since participated in the Cape Town Cycle Tour (in 2018 and 2019) and the Coronation Double Century (also in 2018 and 2019). We were generously assisted by the RBPS Vuleka Trust, who arranged for sponsored entries, cycling shirts and Oakley sunglasses, and arranged for suitable bikes for our cyclists to ride.
Our Trust Deed can be found here: Signed Trust Deed