Background to the Foundation

When Donald Woods arrived in exile in 1978, he took up a number of roles including campaigning, writing, lecturing and various forms of anti-apartheid work, which included the establishment of the Lincoln Charitable Trust. Named after Abraham Lincoln, the purpose of the Trust was to support over 100 South Africans in exile through tertiary education and to use the Trust as a vehicle for campaigning for sanctions, information dissemination on apartheid, advocacy and lobbying.

In the 1990s Woods worked initially in Johannesburg for the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism and was later diagnosed with cancer. It was during this time that his work with the Lincoln Trust was wound down.

Following his death in 2001 and a subsequent period of consultation, Donald's wife - Wendy, and children - Jane, Dillon, Duncan, Gavin and Mary, together with friends of the family re-launched the Trust in 2003 as the Donald Woods Foundation in his name and memory to support the needs and talents of the people amongst whom he was born - many of whom are among the poorest and most vulnerable in South Africa.

The thinking behind this was that despite South Africa's peaceful change to democracy, and its successes in trying to help people to live flourishing and useful lives, millions of people still live in rural and urban poverty. Undoing the damage of decades of apartheid, as well as centuries of underdevelopment, takes time, and in spite of huge advances in restoring people's capacity to thrive, many still live with meagre resources and struggle to eke out an existence.

The Foundation is a charity registered in both the United Kingdom and South Africa. In the UK with the Charity Commission - registration number 289 873; and in South Africa - registration number IT1390/2006.