Community Involvement

Since farmers Piet and Laura Schoeman bought the farm Buffelsdrift in 2003, it has been a dream in Laura’s heart to start a facility where young children in the community can have a haven where they will receive love, care and education.

With no formal educational training, she was not sure where to start. The first step was to obtain a building which could be converted into a school, but this was unsuccessful until a local teacher from the community approached her for a building to start a school, a couple of years ago. For almost 10 years, she never gave up her dream.

Since then, Vreugdevoetjies has been transforming the lives of the small children of the community. By providing a sound foundation for them, we aim to put a dream in these childrens’ hearts. Today the school takes care of almost 80 children between the ages of 1 and 6.

We believe that by investing our time, energy and money in the next generation, this underprivileged community can be uplifted and given a chance to make the right choices in life. We take pride in sharing this initiative with our guests.

It is important for us, as owners of Berluda, to be involved in the community that we live in. Apart from the crèche that was founded on the farm, we also strive to create opportunities for everyone in the community to be able to uplift themselves. House of Hope, an NPO (Non-Profit Organisation), was founded 3 years ago with the aim of creating an income for people in the community. The vision of this organisation is to involve the community by creating arts and crafts, and selling it for an extra income. As a working ostrich farm, we have access to various ostrich products such as feathers and ostrich egg shells. These are the raw materials that we work with at House of Hope to create these unique crafts. The women have been taught to paint and decorate ostrich egg shells and do mosaic-work. Apart from the ostrich curios, they also do knit- and crochet work and other handcrafts.

At House of Hope, we also strive to empower them. We provide a sound foundation through spiritual and emotional mentorship. We have also presented a parenting course, amongst others, to help them reach out to their communities.