Umhlanga couple Stephanie and Andy Keast are the engine room behind the charity driven organisation Soul of Africa.
A non-profit organisation, Soul of Africa is a producer of quality products, mainly shoes and T-shirts, which aims to help the unemployed and the poor in our community.
Soul of Africa was started in 2004 by Lance Clark (sixth generation of the Clarks Shoe Family, a huge international shoe retailer) and Mike and Sarah Geyde of well-known South African footwear manufacturer Froggie Shoes. Their aim was to “make a difference in the lives of South Africans by creating self-sustainable employment and, in turn, change the lives of orphans and vulnerable children”.
The Clarks and Geydes roped in Stephanie and Andy Keast who were running a business in the UK, but it soon became clear that the Soul of Africa project required their full time participation in South Africa. Andy – who was a top level rugby coach and was involved with the Sharks in the 1990s, and was a technical coach of the British Lions in 1997 – and Stephanie settled in Umhlanga in March 2008.
Today, Soul of Africa produces more than 50 000 pairs of shoes a year, more than 20 000 T-shirts and various side ranges such as book binders, coasters, bags and they’re investigating quality, hand-stitched soccer balls. The shoes are still their biggest project and all shoes are crafted and hand-stitched to the highest specifications.
Their production centre is at Seaview south of Durban and the products are then sent to various centres for hand-stitching. “This is labour intensive work, there is a huge difference between hand stitching and stitching to the standards demanded by Clarks and Froggie,” said Stephanie. “This provides employment for about 85 women. There are ebbs and flows in the demand from time to time, but it’s about 85 on average. All manufacturing profits are ceded to the charitable trust.”
The charity is run like a small business with the workers paid a small living wage and then the profits are used to build and staff day care centres for the orphans and provide on-site doctors, nurses and medical supplies.
“Soul of Africa currently exports to America, the UK, Italy, Australia, and Israel,” said Andy, “We sold about 53 000 pairs of shoes last year, but this year it will be closer to 60 000. Then there’s the 20 000 T-shirts.”
To help promote Soul of Africa products, the pair recently launched a new website, www.soulofafricacharity.org “Previously our website was information based, but now we’re hoping to sell a lot through the site,” said Andy. He said they also referred a lot of customers directly to Clarks.
Andy told the UK Telegraph: “It’s a beautifully simple concept that gives people the dignity of working and earning a wage rather than relying purely on a charitable donation, but also raises a lot of money in its own right.”
Stephanie and Andy gave a great deal of credit to Soul of Africa’s supporters, Clarks, Froggie and Next.
“It costs Froggie a huge amount to support this charity. They invest heavily in the support and development of the products, and give resources and time to the charity free of charge.”