The Tutu Tygers Club, an initiative of the Tygerberg Hospital Children’s Trust, seeks to carry out the founding patronage of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Mrs. Leah Tutu to provide high-quality care for all of Tygerberg Hospital’s children.

Jason Falken, the CEO of the trust “In the Arch and Mrs. Leah Tutu’s honour we will fight like Tygers for the future of all our children, especially those whose future is being ignored and downtrodden by injustice. We will create a platform for young leaders to rise up and help pave the way for our children to have a chance at realising their dreams.”

In the shadow of Tygerberg Hospital, our own communities of Ravensmead, Eersteriver, and Wellington long known for tough times and social struggles, few of our youth are able to escape the trappings of disproportionate opportunity. Yet four young men from these very neighbourhoods, namely Vernon Philander, Ashley Johnson, Juan de Jongh and Cornal Hendricks have risen to international sporting stardom and have taken on the challenge laid down by Arch Tutu and his Nobel Peace Prize Laureates to change the paradigm of poverty and its influence on childhood health and wellbeing.

They are the founders of the Tutu Tygers, a club of extraordinary leaders under the banner of the Tygerberg Hospital Children’s Trust, charged with carrying forward the values and social purpose espoused by our patrons the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Mrs. Leah Tutu.

Each of these Tutu Tygers will use their influence and standing on a global platform and drive campaigns through one of our four “Baskets of Care” which they have personally adopted as close to their hearts, namely: