How Sikunye Grew in 2025
The real heroes of the Sikunye story are the men and women, in communities across the nation, who are reaching and supporting families with young children. We celebrate and honour them for the champions they are.
And as the Sikunye team, we are looking back at 2025 and reflecting on how we each experienced th year. Here is a window into Sikunye’s 2025.
Busiswa
In 2025 one of my highlights was to see churches in different provinces, finally understanding the concept of the importance FTD and coming up with practical solutions – small and big – on how they deeply care for families in the FTD. One practical example was collecting nonperishable goods that can be used when visiting a family after giving birth. It’s beautiful to witness churches taking their rightful place to be that trusted voice in our communities, regardless of their economic status.
Daisy
2025 has been an extremely busy but fulfilling year for me in so many ways! The beginning of the year ushered in change as we had new team members join, increasing our capacity as a team to make an even greater impact in the space where we get to serve.
On the admin side, it was a great year where I experienced personal growth and continued to learn new skills as we migrated to a new and improved database and tracker system which allows us to see the impact of our work.
The highlight of this year has been the launch of our “Build the Village Academy” which allowed churches that attended access to further training and personal coaching to help them establish this ministry in their churches. The first group graduated in October! This has been a dream that has been in our hearts for a long time, so seeing that come to pass has been so encouraging!
Grace
Joining the Sikunye team this year has been a joy and is undoubtedly the highlight of my year. As someone new to working directly in the First Thousand Days, I have felt freshly inspired and motivated to support and care well for families in this season, realising the deep impact this can have on a child’s life and wellbeing. I was excited to be part of the team when we launched Build the Village Academy and our first annual FTD month campaign. Both initiatives reminding me of why I do this work and the value of community, moved by the fact that Jesus welcomed babies into His presence and took delight in being with young children. Over the year I have loved seeing different churches with diverse settings and cultures all rally together with the same goal and purpose. I look forward to more of this in 2026!
Mawande
I can’t believe that this month marks exactly a year since I’ve joined Sikunye. It has been a year full of extraordinary stories and a great deal of learning and being stretched to my potential.
Looking back at 2025, I have been so amazed and encouraged seeing the previously formal and traditional churches who are not easily adaptable to new concepts of Biblical theology outside of their church doctrine, being very receptive to FTD and biblical truths about it.
One of the things that has had an impact on me is the Fatherhood journey that I co-facilitate with Richard. We have a part in our Zoom training where we allow the leaders to share their fatherhood story, how was their relationship with their dad? As these leaders share often the broken relationship they had with their fathers and how God has healed them, for some still going through the process of healing, it’s always such a real reminder why God has called us into this space of FFTD. I always leave the room feeling that God has spoken to me and emphasised why I’m part of this team.
One of my highlights of this team, is this value of “pursuing excellence.” This team doesn’t rest until something is done better with a touch of dignity. In every aspect and for every person we work with.
Richard
A 2025 highlight for me was representing Sikunye at two international conferences. It is deeply encouraging to see what organisations are doing all over the world to develop their communities. It was humbling to share the work of Sikunye and explore how their work could include a new focus on the first thousand days, or engaging with the church as a key role player in their development work.
One of the areas of growth in our work this year happened through our Build the Village Academy. We revisited resources we developed in our early days, and it was repackaged to suit the churches in the academy. This included writing more content that deepened the theological motivation for churches to care for young children. I was so encouraged by the feedback from church leaders, and we will be expanding on these resources in coming years.
Ruth
It has been a significant year of collaboration, focused on building nurturing environments where families and children under two, can thrive. I am truly grateful to be able to connect with many passionate people from all corners of South Africa and beyond, all driven by a shared vision to make a difference. We have heard many beautiful stories of big and small shifts in perspective regarding family and young child from churches intentionally becoming more welcoming to mothers, fathers, and their young babies. I have seen others taking bold steps in writing their church’s child protection policy. And others taking time to be trained to mentor fathers to see them positively engage with their young children right from the start. It really will take all of us to change the story – and every day I get to see glimpses of how this is happening – I am ending the year hope-filled.
As the Sikunye team, we are excited about what lies ahead in 2026 – and trust you will be part of the journey.
Comments (3)
Well done, good and faithful servants!!
Allow me to say thank you so much to each and everyone for taking your time to train,equip us through your teachings, I myself I learned alot of things something which I was not even have an idea but through your teachings I now know how to handle things and also I’m now know how to help the community i believecome 2026 will be more fire,Once again thank you so much the whole team may the good Lord the Gord who is in heaven bless you in abundance.
Thank you to all of you for sucher inspiration. You’re welcome even 2026