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A Hasso Plattner Foundation Project

Embark in Knowledge. Engineer South Africa's STEM future.

EIK is the South African vehicle channelling Hasso Plattner Foundation funding into measurable STEM outcomes — delivered through Inkcubeko Youth and Science Centre in Thembalethu, George, with a Cape Town Discovery Lab to follow in 2027.
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Read 2026 impact letter
Learners reached, 2024 — 2026
0
Girls in STEM-track programmes
0 %
Centres · George + Cape Town
0
Programme spend, ring-fenced
R 0 m

We channel international capital. Into
measurable South African STEM outcomes.

EIK is a South African non-profit organisation funded by the Hasso Plattner Foundation. Our role in the impact ecosystem is precise: we are the institutional, donor-facing vehicle that translates international funding into structured, measurable STEM programmes — and we deliver those programmes through Inkcubeko Youth and Science Centre in Thembalethu, George, with a Cape Town Discovery Lab to follow in 2027.

Most South African development organisations try to wear two hats — institutional credibility for funders, community warmth for beneficiaries — and end up wearing both badly. We split the work. EIK does governance, partnership, evidence. Inkcubeko delivers the Saturday classes. The two brands look related because they are. They behave differently because they should.
Learners reached, 2024 — 2026
0
Across both centres, audited against attendance and progression data.

+38% vs 2024

Girls in STEM-track programmes
0 %
Nine percentage points above the South African national STEM enrolment average.

Above benchmark

Programme spend, 2024 — 2026
R 0 m
Ring-fenced from operations. 91% deployed to direct learner-facing delivery.

91% direct

Where the work happens

Two centres. One
pipeline.

Our delivery is centre-based, not virtual. The Western Cape was a deliberate choice — it lets us anchor in a high-need community (Thembalethu) while staying close to a research and methodology partner (the d-school Afrika at UCT).

Inkcubeko Youth and Science Centre

Thembalethu, George · Western Cape

Our delivery partner since 2019. A community-rooted STEM centre running curriculum support, robotics, the DisChem Adolescent Clinic, and a SAASTA-aligned exhibition hall. Inkcubeko runs the work; we run the audit trail.

Learners

2,047

Programmes

11

Partner since

2019

Cape Town Discovery Lab

Site selection in progress · Cape Metro

The second centre, in design with the d-school Afrika at UCT and the Western Cape Education Department. Modelled on the HPI d-school project-partnership format: design challenges run with student teams from UCT against problems set by SA municipalities and CSI partners.

Capacity Y1

800+

Partners

3

Opening

Q3 2027

Method & lineage

Design thinking,
Afrikan context.

Our programme architecture borrows from the HPI d-school in Potsdam and the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at the University of Cape Town. The method is human-centred, iterative, and evidence-led. We adapt it for two specific constraints South African STEM funding tends to ignore: the learner’s first language is rarely English, and the closest research library is rarely in their town.

 

What that looks like in a Saturday class: we start with a problem the learner can name in their own language, prototype with materials they can hold, and measure what changed in their reasoning — not what they can recall in a quiz.

METHOD PARTNER

Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika

University of Cape Town · Faculty exchange and method partnership active since 2025.

The programme cycle

i.

Empathise

Start with the learner's framing of the problem — in isiXhosa, Afrikaans or English.

ii.

Define

Frame the design challenge against curriculum outcomes and centre capacity.

iii.

Ideate & prototype

Build with materials on hand. Test against peers, not abstract rubrics.

iv.

Measure & publish

Pre / post reasoning gain, attendance, progression. Quarterly, including what didn't work.

Why girls in STEM

The gap between,
enrolment and persistence
is the work.

Girls who enter STEM-track programmes in South Africa drop out at 1.6 times the rate of boys before reaching matric. Closing that gap takes more than recruitment posters; it takes role models, family-engagement programmes, and curriculum that doesn’t quietly route girls out of physical sciences in Grade 9.

 

We measure persistence, not enrolment. Our 54 percent representation figure is the survivor — the cohort still in the programme after the third quarter. That is the number we are willing to be quoted on.

We do not need more girls signing up. We need more girls staying.

Partners

The names that made this
possible.

We list our partners by the work, not by the size of the cheque. The Hasso Plattner Foundation is our anchor funder. Everything else flows around that core.

Anchor Funder · 2026 — 2030

Hasso Plattner Foundation

The Hasso Plattner Foundation funds the digital leaders of tomorrow — through the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, the d-school Afrika at UCT, and from 2026, EIK in South Africa. Our work is part of that pipeline. The funding is committed, multi-year, and tied to specific STEM-outcome milestones.

Programme

Science + Education

Geography

Western Cape, ZA

Cycle

2026 — 2030

HASSO PLATTNER

FOUNDATION

PROJECT REF · ZA-EIK-2026-001

Academic & delivery

Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika

Method & faculty exchange

SINCE · 2025

Inkcubeko Youth & Science Centre

Pillar 2 delivery partner

SINCE · 2019

Living Maths

Curriculum partnership

SINCE · 2022

Cape Town Science Centre

Programme cross-flow

SINCE · 2024

Government

Western Cape Education Dept

School pathway access

SINCE · 2020

Department of Science and Innovation

Science centre alignment

SINCE · 2022

SAASTA

Science centre network

REGISTERING · Q3 2026

George Municipality

Centre infrastructure

SINCE · 2019

Corporate & CSI

DisChem Foundation

Adolescent Clinic, Thembalethu

SINCE · 2021

Open for partnership

B-BBEE Level 1 · Section 18A

CSI CYCLE · 2027

Open for partnership

Lab equipment & bursary

CSI CYCLE · 2027

Open for partnership

Cape Town Discovery Lab

CSI CYCLE · 2027

Academic & delivery

Partner with the
work

Choose the path that fits your governance constraints. All three are POPIA-compliant, audited, and Section-18A-receipted.

01

Corporate CSI partnership

B-BBEE Level 1. Section 18A active. From R250k.

02

Institutional grant programme

Foundation, bilateral, multilateral. Multi-year cycles.

03

Individual recurring giving

From R150 a month. Funds learner places, not overheads.