More about Little Lions

In 2018 our founder, Stijn de Leeuw, moved away from Amsterdam and his job as a child psychologist to start his PhD at the University of Cape Town. His research at UCT led him to two under-resourced communities (also called townships) about an hour drive from Cape Town. It quickly became evident that mental support was lacking, but also, that mental health support was not deemed needed.

Almost 4 million people live in township in and around Cape Town. In the majority of these townships, psychological support is completely lacking. But because poverty and violence are strong influencers in the daily life of South African children, easily accessible psychological help would be of great benefit.

However, South Africa’s National Development Plan 2030 does not mention how they plan on supporting basic mental health, let alone a plan on how to help this vulnerable group.

And then, there was the problem of the language. The predominant language in a lot of townships is isiXhosa (one of 11 national languages in South Africa, famously known for its click sounds). In isiXhosa, there simply are no words to describe certain basic feelings and emotions. A translation for the word ‘depression’ for instance, does not even exist.

So how do you start a conversation about mental health, or just general wellbeing, when your language does not provide you the words to do so?

To bridge the language gap, a local role model from Langa joined the team. Nicko showed the children the importance of talking about mental health and within a year there were more children on waiting lists than there was space for in the workshops.

Time to take it to the next level! Iza joined the team and created a growth plan to make sure that Stijn and Nicko could focus on helping more and more children, while Little Lions grew massively behind the scenes.

With the launch of the Academy in 2021, Little Lions took a big step towards normalising mental health conversations. Local role models have been educated and are employed as mental health coaches, spreading the word about the importance of being mentally strong.

Little Lions now has a team of 8 mental health coaches, is active in 4 townships, and have now given over 1100 free workshops.

Our dreams are being realised and we are closer and closer to achieving our mission: for every child to enter adulthood with an understanding of their own mental health and a resilient mind, having been educated professionally by someone who has walked through life in their shoes.

Moving forward in 2022 we’re educating and employing 8 new coaches to expand our impact in the local townships. We’re also launching our ambassador program where people can get involved with the community and help out by donating money, time, skills and resources.