Remember this photo?

It was taken in September 2019 as we welcomed our first cohort to the iHub in Philippi Village.  WOW!  it seems like a long time ago and so much has transpired since those first 18 students started showing up 3 times per week at 3:00pm after their grade 11 classes wrapped for the day.

Since that time the iHub program has undergone some pretty radical changes and welcomed over 300 students through its doors as it expanded to Johannesburg, and the program expanded and transformed into a multi-stream digital media and soft skills program that now attracts over 1400 students who have applied to be selected for 60 open positions offered for the 2023 cohort.

The time has come for us to close our doors at the Philippi Village location.  The Board of Directors has taken the decision after thoughtful and prayerful review of our vision and goals for the future, as well as the realities of the ever increasing security challenges of accessing the PV hub for our students and leadership team through the Philippi Township (which has experienced significant escalated violence over the past year)

For 2023, the HAF Board of Directors has just approved a ZAR 5.4 million (rand) budget that will focus its efforts on operating a single iHub location at the Media Mill in Johannesburg.


(Above: recent Zoom meeting of the combined Hillsong Africa Foundation and iHub Boards as they considered the 2023-2025 strategic roadmap and approved funding for the 2023 program)

We look forward to continue to learn and grow the program and hopefully one day re-launch in Cape Town – most likely in a more secure area of the city like Woodstock or the CBD.

Here are a few final nostalgic photos of the PV iHub taken on the 2022 cohort graduation day – the doors will close permanently on December 31st…

PS: Brandon is in the process of sending all our equipment from PV up to the newly expanded Media Mill iHub in Johannesburg where we will welcome 120 new students to Boot Camp in early February, 2023.  Look for some new exiting posts of the 2023 Johannesburg cohort in the months ahead!