HOPE FROM ASHES: Community rallies behind NPO as fire halts vital child-focused programmes

Lindsey and Darron Nicholson have spent years turning their small farm in Redhill into a place where local children and their families can learn, grow and create sustainable futures for themselves.

But early on Tuesday, 21 August 2026, a fire broke out at the main house on the farm, which is the home base for the GLO Project, between Scarborough and Simon’s Town, causing widespread damage to the property.

The fire, which has been ruled as electrical, started in the pantry and quickly spread to the kitchen, bathroom and living room.

The pantry, kitchen, bathroom and living room suffered extensive destruction, while the rest of the house sustained significant smoke damage. Fortunately, there were no injuries to people or animals

What has served as the heartbeat of the organisation since 2018, offering after-school and holiday programmes to underprivileged children from surrounding areas, is now smouldering and uninhabitable.

The blaze has dealt a heavy blow to GLO Project and surrounding communities, including Redhill informal settlement. With the main house rendered entirely unsafe, GLO Project has been forced to suspend all its face-to-face community outreach programmes until further notice. 

“We’ve had to cancel programmes at least for the next couple of months. As of right now, our long-term goal is to reopen in January. That’s how gnarly the fire was,” Lindsey Nicholson told Daily Maverick.

A mission born from purpose

GLO Project (formerly known as The GLO House) was founded by Nicholson and her husband after she moved to SA, driven by a deep conviction to advocate for vulnerable youth who had been written off by society. 

What began as a children’s home evolved into a holistic community model when the NGO relocated to the farm in 2021. Recognising the critical lack of educational resources and employment opportunities in Red Hill, GLO Project established two distinct pillars: GLO Outreach and GLO Farm. 

GLO Outreach provides youth tutoring and life skills. Meanwhile, GLO Farm acts as a self-sustaining social enterprise – growing produce, delivering veggie boxes to local restaurants, and training parents in agricultural skills to foster local employment.

This temporary closure leaves a massive void. The underserved areas, such as Redhill informal settlement, are often overlooked and lack public transport, parks for children to play in or formal support structures. 

Through GLO Outreach, about 40 local children rely on the NPO’s after-school tutoring, educational support and safe recreational spaces every week. For many of these children, the centre was also where they received one or two meals a day.

Ubuntu in action

While the fire crippled the outreach facility, it also sparked a remarkable wave of solidarity. In the immediate aftermath, when the building was still warm from the blaze, members of the Redhill community were the very first on the scene to lend a helping hand. 

“We had people from Redhill that were the first on scene that were helping with the rubble by shovelling it out and just showing up. It was a strange feeling because we feel like we are called to serve them, but they took the opportunity to help rebuild this place for their kids and for their kids’ futures... That’s been a beautiful piece of it,” Nicholson said.

Road to recovery and a new vision 

“We are taking some time and using this as an opportunity to regroup and sit at a table with people who care about the mission and the community to figure out how we can better serve the community. This is an opportunity to make it exactly what our community needs,” Nicholson said.

As GLO Project awaits a full structural engineering assessment to determine the extent of the damage, the road to recovery is clear but challenging. Because the property was uninsured, the organisation urgently requires financial contributions, building materials like lumber and paint, and replacement essentials ranging from kitchen appliances to cleaning supplies. 

Fortunately, the farm side of the organisation remains fully functional. Members of the public can directly support the rebuilding efforts by subscribing to GLO Farm’s regular organic produce deliveries, or sponsoring produce variety boxes for local vulnerable families. 

“I think that we’re standing in the ashes of a dream that came true. But we’re excited to see what can rise from that. It gives us the opportunity to really look at this space and our programme and how we can make it better and build it bigger and stronger. We’re excited just to see how we can use this tragedy as an opportunity,” Nicholson said. DM