Beyond Recycling: What Recorra Learned at Umthombo Trust's Holiday Club

School holidays should be a time for young people to explore, build confidence, and try new things. But for many communities, access to positive activities and opportunities can be limited.

That’s one reason Recorra continues to support Umthombo Trust, a community-led organisation in Rheenendal, South Africa. Through programmes that combine environmental learning, creativity, sport, and mentorship, Umthombo helps young people develop skills, build connections, and engage with the natural world.

This July, Recorra Social Impact Lead Ed Van Reenen spent a day participating in Umthombo Trust’s Holiday Club to experience that impact first hand.

What is Umthombo Trust’s Holiday Club?

Hosted at Umthombo’s learning space on Homtini Farm, the Holiday Club brings together young people from across the Trust’s programmes during the school holidays.

Ed joined Layla, Nikki, Sue-Lynn, Umthombo’s facilitator team, for a jam-packed day of activities. The morning began with dancing, games, and icebreakers, including a game where ‘Ninja’ moves were passed around a circle. It led to what Ed described as “some enthusiastic Jackie Chan impressions, imaginative combat, and more laughter”.

Creative stations had been set up across the site, including screen printing, painting second-hand T-shirts, and jewellery making.

For lunch, the group enjoyed a traditional South African braai, complete with fire-baked roosterkoek, filled with apricot jam and cheese.

The afternoon was dedicated to relay races and five-a-side football. Facilitator Nikki swapped her role as football coach for referee, complete with whistle and full kit, keeping the increasingly competitive matches under control. The boys later went on to win 6-1 that weekend, suggesting the extra practice had done them no harm. Meanwhile, after helping himself to a second roosterkoek at lunch, Ed found himself playing far more football than he had expected to work it off.

What stood out the most to Ed was how naturally learning was woven into the day.

“One of the things I continue to admire about Umthombo is that very little learning feels like traditional teaching.”

What Skills can Young People Develop Through Umthombo Trust’s Holiday Club?

While the focus is on having fun, the Holiday Club also helps young people develop valuable life skills.

Creative activities encourage confidence and self-expression, while team sports and group games build communication, teamwork, and leadership skills. Throughout the day, supported one another, and developed relationships with both their peers and trusted adult mentors.

The facilitators also use everyday situations as opportunities for learning. Ed noted that at one point, a rap song containing expletives and demeaning language, prompting a wider discussion around respect and positive communication.

This approach helps create an environment where personal development happens naturally alongside play and recreation.

Why is Nature so Important to Umthombo’s Programmes?

Connecting young people with nature sits at the heart of Umthombo Trust’s work.

Recorra’s partnership with Umthombo has supported the Eco Youth Circle programme, which helps young people engage with environmental issues through nature-based learning, conservation activities, and personal-development.

Spending time at the Holiday Club reinforced an important lesson for Ed.

“I’ve realised that environmental education is wider and deeper than recycling.”

Environmental awareness grows through experiences such as spending time outdoors, connecting with the natural world, and learning how individuals and communities can care for the environment around them.

Why Does Recorra Support Umthombo Trust?

Recorra’s partnership with Umthombo Trust is built on the belief that creating a more sustainable future requires investment in people as well as the environment.

Over the last two years, Recorra has supported Umthombo’s youth and environmental programmes, helping to fund opportunities for learning, skills development, and community resilience. Recorra has also provided funding for wheelbarrows and gardening tools used in Umthombo’s community garden project.

Those wheelbarrows even found an unexpected use during the Holiday Club, transporting teenagers during a wheelbarrow relay race.

What Makes Umthombo’s Approach so Effective?

By the end of the day, it was not any single activity that made the biggest impression on Ed. Instead, it was the atmosphere Umthombo had created.

Young people spent the day laughing together and encouraging one another, while Layla, Nikki, and Sue-Lynn created a space where everyone felt welcome and able to participate.

“The Umthombo team have created places where young people feel connected – to their peers, to trusted adults, and to the natural environment that activities take place in.”

That sense of connection is central to Umthombo’s work and helps explain why its programmes have such a positive impact.

For Ed, being a participant in the Holiday Club reinforced why Recorra chose to support Umthombo in the first place. By investing in young people, trusted mentors, and opportunities to connect with nature, the partnership is helping create lasting impact within the local community.