Our Story

In 1963, in apartheid South Africa, a 23-year-old white woman went somewhere she wasn’t supposed to.

In 1963 when South Africa was still suffering under apartheid, Helen Lieberman, a young speech therapist, drove into Langa, a township on the outskirts of Cape Town. And what she encountered there – squalor, fear, poverty and desperation, as well as compassion, generosity and warmth – changed her life. Working with the women she met in the townships, Helen went on to change the lives of hundreds of thousands of others.

It is this community-led care that is at the heart of Ikamva Labantu. It still relies on a network of dedicated women who are determined to positively affect the lives of those in their communities, empowering them to become self-reliant because they have hope, information, support and resources.

Having helped thousands of people, Ikamva Labantu is now one of South Africa’s largest and most respected organisations. Today, we employ more than 100 people and care for around 25,000 children and adults every day through our network of thousands of community carers.

Watch Helen Lieberman speak at TedX Euston in 2012 where she explains how Ikamva Labantu came to be.