Upcycle’s Orange Farm Community Project

Status: Active relationships | Programme temporarily paused

The Orange Farm community is a semi-rural, underdeveloped area approximately 40 km south of Johannesburg. It is one of the largest informal settlements in South Africa, with an estimated population of close to one million people. The community faces complex and interconnected challenges, including high levels of poverty, low literacy rates, limited access to basic services, constrained access to justice and healthcare, unemployment, and high levels of violence—often linked to alcohol abuse.

Our Involvement in Orange Farm

Upcycle has worked in Orange Farm over a number of years, engaging at multiple levels within the community. Our work has ranged from teaching groups of women how to make soft toys from scrap fabric, to supporting income-generation projects that transform waste materials into saleable products.

Through this work, we developed strong relationships with community members who showed remarkable resilience, passion, and determination to improve their lives. Orange Farm is a community we are deeply connected to, and one we remain committed to supporting.

At present, this particular project is on hold. The geographic distance and current resource constraints mean that we are unable to maintain the level of consistent, hands-on support required for long-term sustainability. However, this is not an exit. We continue to stay in touch with key individuals in the area and remain open to re-engagement when conditions allow.

Partnership with the Orange Farm Human Rights Advice Centre

During our time in Orange Farm, Upcycle partnered with the Orange Farm Human Rights Advice Centre, a grassroots organisation established to alleviate suffering and improve quality of life through sustainable local initiatives.

The Advice Centre plays a critical role in the community by:

Despite ongoing challenges—such as funding shortages, land ownership issues, inadequate facilities, and limited service capacity—the centre continues to operate and remains a trusted resource for the community.

Income Generation and Recycling

The Advice Centre also operates a recycling project, which historically helped fund both the centre itself and its Itsoseng Day Care Centre. The daycare was originally established for staff members’ children but was later opened to the broader community due to demand.

However, this income stream has come under significant threat. As large commercial recycling companies expand, informal and community-based recyclers are increasingly pushed out of the market. This loss of market share directly impacts the Advice Centre’s ability to fund its operations.

Upcycle’s Approach

Upcycle’s intervention focused on moving beyond basic recycling by training community members to create higher-value products from waste materials. By upcycling waste into finished products, the community could generate greater income than recycling alone currently allows.

While this programme is not active on the ground at present, the groundwork has been laid, the relationships remain, and the intent to return is clear.

Looking Forward

Upcycle would like to continue supporting the Orange Farm Human Rights Advice Centre in uplifting its community—economically, socially, and environmentally—when resources and partnerships allow.

Your funding can be the catalyst for real, sustainable change.

Orrange farm

We welcome engagement from corporates interested in SED or CSI partnerships that could help revive and sustain this work.

Orange Farm is a community that is making things happen against the odds. With the right support, it has the potential to go even further—and any organisation involved would be proud to stand alongside the people driving that change.

This community is making things happen and you would be very proud to be the funder of such an awesome group of people. for more information on this project and others please contact us