Lambert's Bay Summer Festival 2024

Community Touch Rugby Day, Lamberts Bay, South Africa

In December 2024, Project Sunwave hosted a Community Touch Rugby Day in Lamberts Bay, South Africa, marking one of the organization’s first large-scale community engagement events.

The event brought together 20 local teams and approximately 500 spectators, creating a vibrant, family-friendly gathering that celebrated sport, health, and community pride. Touch rugby holds cultural significance in Lamberts Bay, and the event was intentionally designed to honor a long-standing community tradition while creating a safe, inclusive space for youth and families.

Beyond sport, the event served as an early pilot of Project Sunwave’s emerging social business model. By organizing a community-led sporting event with modest revenue streams (registrations, vendors, and partnerships), Project Sunwave tested how events could sustainably support its nonprofit youth programming in ocean safety, education, and skills development.

This trial event demonstrated:

• The organization’s capacity to plan and deliver a multi-team community sports event

• Strong local participation and spectator engagement

• The viability of events as a fundraising and community-connection mechanism

• A model where earned income is reinvested directly into nonprofit programming

The success of the Community Touch Rugby Day informed the development of future festivals and sporting events, now positioned as a core pillar of Project Sunwave’s community-first, financially sustainable approach to social impact.

Get Involved

Friends of Project Sunwave and it’s affiliates' community events are supported by a growing network of international partners, donors, and advocates who believe in locally led solutions to global challenges.

By getting involved, you help strengthen community-owned initiatives and enable sustainable funding for youth development, education, and ocean safety programs in South Africa. Your support helps scale impact beyond borders while remaining rooted in local pride and participation.