Mbeko Eco Club Paarl, South Africa
GROWING TOGETHER THROUGH KAIZEN™ – STRENGTHENING EDUCATION, AWARENESS AND SUSTAINABILITY
This event with Mbeko Eco Club took place in October 2025 in Mbektweni township, Paarl, South Africa.
Context
Mbekweni Ecological Club (Mbeko Eco Club) is a registered non-profit organization based in the Mbekweni Township in the Drakenstein Municipality of the Western Cape. This area faces significant socio-economic challenges including high unemployment, limited economic opportunities and a strong reliance on the economy. The organization promotes environmental education and awareness through outdoor learning programs, eco-excursion workshops focused on water quality, waste reductions, climate change adaptation, biodiversity conversation and regenerative agriculture.
In addition, Mbeko Eco Club manages a food garden at Langabuya Primary School, where learners are taught how to grow their own food for household consumption and to support the school’s feeding scheme. The organization also facilitates sports initiatives, providing local youth with access to mountain biking and tennis opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable. While Mbeko Eco Club has successfully relied on sponsorships and corporate social investment (CSI) initiatives to fund its programs, operations were largely dependent on a small number of individuals. Limited standardization and access to critical resources constrained the organization’s ability to scale its impact to meet the growing needs of the community.
Objectives
The collaboration between Kaizen Institute South Africa and Mbeko Eco Club focused on establishing a framework, defining standard work and analyzing physical requirements. The objective was to prepare Mbeko Eco Club to sustainable scale its programs and extend their impact to more youth in 2026.
The Approach
The KAIZEN approach began with a strategic workshop to define Mbeko Eco Club’s True North and identify key obstacles to achieving its objectives. The team analyzed daily routines, event-management processes and the maintenance of school feeding gardens to establish standard work and reduce dependency on a few individuals. Physical resource needs were assessed to guide a targeted sponsorship campaign aimed at sustaining current program and enabling expansion in the second half of 2026. Additional actions included developing a plan to enhance the organization’s website, setting up donation platforms for financial and material contributions and leveraging Kaizen Institute South Africa’s network to connect Mbeko Eco Club with businesses, universities and partners for future initiatives such as food garden expansion, sports programs and a water-testing project.
John Meda
“In KAIZEN™, we always stress the importance of going to the Gemba, the actual place where value is created. Visiting Mbeko Eco Club’s Gemba in Paarl was truly an eye-opening experience. It showed us that no matter what resources you have, when you use them responsibly and intentionally, you can make a real and meaningful impact. Vincent’s passion and commitment to empowering the next generation is exactly what our society needs. With continued support, Mbekweni Ecological Club will no doubt grow to serve and uplift even more people.”
Consultant | Kaizen Institute South Africa
Impact
Through the support of Kaizen Institute South Africa, Mbeko Eco Club is now better positioned to diversify funding sources, secure donations and clearly articulate the value of its programs to potential supporters. The organization is set up to continue positively impacting approximately 1,500 learners at Langabuya Primary School, with plans to provide additional food support to 750 children by supplying vegetables for home consumption. In 2026, Mbeko Eco Club aims to expand its programs to at least one additional school, Desmond Mpilo Tutu High School, with the potential to positively impact up to 1,880 additional youth.
Future Collaborations
Many organizations deliver significant value within limited reach due to constraints in systems, resources and scalability. This initiative highlights the role Kaizen Institute can play in enabling organizations to apply standardization, performance management, and process optimization to extend their impact.
For more details or collaboration inquiries, please contact [email protected].