SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa is one of the most urbanised countries on the continent — and one of the most unequal. Over 65% of the population lives in cities, yet millions of young people remain locked out of the opportunities urban life is supposed to offer. Youth unemployment sits above 45%. Informal settlements stretch across the edges of cities like Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban, home to communities that are resourceful, creative, and persistently underserved.
Cape Town in particular holds a concentration of youth-led energy that mirrors what Dreamtown has seen in Nairobi, Kampala, and Freetown — young people with ideas, drive, and a clear sense of what their neighbourhoods need, but limited access to the funding and platforms that would let them act on it.
Dreamtown's engagement in South Africa is recent and growing. It began with the Dreamfund — a radically trust-based micro-granting initiative that puts money directly into the hands of young people and lets them define both the problem and the solution.
CONTEXT
SELECTED PROJECTS IN SOUTH AFRICA
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Most funding models ask young people to write proposals, fill in log frames, and translate their ideas into a funder's language before they receive a single cent. The Dreamfund inverts that relationship.
Launched in 2025, the Dreamfund's first edition focused on grassroots initiatives in and around Cape Town. Five grants of 27,000 ZAR (approximately 10,000 DKK) each were awarded to youth-led urban projects — selected through a process as simple as the ideas it aims to support: a one-minute video explaining the dream, what it takes to get started, and how the project brings that dream to life.
No lengthy proposals. No theory-of-change documents. A phone camera, a clear idea, and the energy to carry it through.
A diverse selection committee — with more than half its members being young people — reviewed all submissions. Every video pitch was shared on Dreamtown's social media, giving visibility to applicants whether selected or not. The projects that emerged covered safe spaces, green infrastructure, and creative community programmes — each designed by people under 25 who live in the neighbourhoods where the work happens.
The Dreamfund operates on a radically trust-based model with minimal reporting obligations. It reflects a core conviction: the best solutions to urban challenges in informal settlements come from the people who experience those challenges daily. Funding structures should match that reality. The fund provides unrestricted, flexible support — because young people know what their communities need, and they move faster when the money doesn't come with strings attached.
The Dreamfund is open to youth-led initiatives across Dreamtown's partner countries and is funded entirely by Dreamtown membership contributions — 100% of which go directly to supporting young people's dreams. Selected projects are featured in a public online launch event designed to foster network building among grantees.
South Africa is a new chapter for Dreamtown — and the Dreamfund is how it begins: by trusting young people to lead.
