{"id":12,"date":"2026-06-29T18:32:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T18:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.net.za\/wpbuild\/?page_id=12"},"modified":"2026-07-31T14:57:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:57:25","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.groundup.net.za\/wpbuild\/about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"About us"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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About us<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Ground Up Collective<\/span> <\/b>is a women-led registered non-profit and public benefit \u00a0organisation based in Cape Town, South Africa. We deliver trauma-informed programmes that build resilience, restore wellbeing, and transform the harmful social and gender norms that drive gender based violence and inequity.<\/p>

We create safe spaces for reflection, healing, personal growth, and transformation. Our approach is integrated: we address the risk factors and drivers of violence, strengthen the protective factors that build resilience, and foster capabilities in communities needed for long-term, sustainable social change.<\/p>

Our methodology is grounded in evidence-based practice and adopts a holistic view to healing and prevention. We apply a multidisciplinary approach informed \u00a0by the lived experience of the communities we work with. This includes therapeutic art exercises, somatic movement, breath work, mindfulness, forum theatre, and narrative storytelling.<\/p>

At the heart of our work is a belief in the inherent strengths and capacities of individuals and communities. Rather than positioning people as recipients of services, we take a participatory, non-directive approach that builds agency, ownership, and collective action \u2014 supporting individuals and communities to become active agents of change in their own lives and in those of the people around them.<\/p>

Through partnerships with schools, communities, civil society organisations, and public institutions, we work towards a future where people can heal, thrive, and participate fully in a more just, equitable, and violence-free society.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Our founder<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Melanie Lue<\/span><\/strong> has over 35 years\u2019 work experience working in gender-based violence, human rights, governance, crime and violence prevention, child protection, and criminal justice reform. She has worked extensively throughout South Africa, with in-country experience in Kenya, Ghana, and Namibia.<\/p>

Melanie\u2019s expertise spans training and facilitation, programme development and implementation; stakeholder engagement, research and monitoring and evaluation, and policy and strategy development.\u00a0<\/p>

Melanie holds a BA LLB degree, alongside further training in community art facilitation, trauma-informed practice, yoga and breath work, and psychsocial support.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Our board<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Melanie Lue
<\/b>(Founder and Managing Director)<\/p>

Advocate Kerensa Millard<\/b><\/b><\/p>

Advocate Devina Perumal<\/b><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About us Ground Up Collective is a women-led registered non-profit and public benefit \u00a0organisation based in Cape Town, South Africa. We deliver trauma-informed programmes that build resilience, restore wellbeing, and transform the harmful social and gender norms that drive gender based violence and inequity. We create safe spaces for reflection, healing, personal growth, and transformation. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groundup.net.za\/wpbuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groundup.net.za\/wpbuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groundup.net.za\/wpbuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groundup.net.za\/wpbuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groundup.net.za\/wpbuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/www.groundup.net.za\/wpbuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":935,"href":"https:\/\/www.groundup.net.za\/wpbuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions\/935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groundup.net.za\/wpbuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}