Facilitating co-creation workshops to create a space where urban youth in Langa can identify the challenges around them and have the tools, skills, and resources to improve their health and living environment.
MIT D-Lab Class
D-Lab: Development - Fall 2025
Country
South Africa
Team
- Spencer Co, MIT 2028 - Second-year undergraduate studying Electrical Engineering with Computing
- Laura Dallabrida, MIT 2027 - Architect and Urbanist from Brazil and Master of City Planning Candidate at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning
- Temuulen Enkhbat, MIT 2027 - Urbanist from Mongolia and Master of City Planning Candidate at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning
- Rebecca Hsia, Wellesley 2027 - Third-year undergraduate studying Economics
- Saachi Mody, MIT 2027 - Third-year undergraduate studying Computation and Cognition
- Anushka Singh, MIT 2028 - Second-year undergraduate studying Civil Engineering and Urban Planning
Mentors
- Maddie Johnson-Harwitz: Industrial Design BFA, Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Co-founder of the REACH Stretcher initiative.
- Michela Galazzi: Industrial Design BFA, Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Co-founder of the REACH Stretcher initiative.
Community partners
Langa Bicycle Hub, Mzikhona Mgedle, Founder and Managing Director
The Langa Bicycle Hub is a community organization that seeks to increase access to bikes to reduce the cost of mobility in Langa, bring the community together, and provide employment and economic opportunities, especially for youth. The Bicycle Hub will be the venue for this project’s co-creation workshops.
Cultural context and problem
Langa is one of the oldest townships in South Africa and has also historically been a center of resistance against apartheid (Cape Town Tourism, 2023). Despite its strong cultural heritage, Langa’s residents continue to face socio-economic challenges stemming from its history of spatial segregation, including limited access to formal housing, employment opportunities, infrastructure, and services (BizNews, 2025).
The country’s long-standing struggle over land, rights, and urban belonging can be seen in its increasing contemporary housing deficit and lack of urban infrastructure and services. As of 2023, the official housing backlog in South Africa was estimated to have grown to 2.4 million households (Statistics South Africa, 2023), and 2022 Census data revealed that the number of households living in informal dwellings had increased to 17.5% of the national total, up from 13.6% in 2011 (Statistics South Africa, 2023), data that highlights the still persistent gap between policies and projects implementation and the social and economic reality of the country, reflected in the townships’ territories.
Youth dropping out of school is extremely common in South Africa, with only 52% of age-appropriate students actually enrolled in grade 12 (Watts & Veidt, 2019), due to a number of challenges that students face, including economic pressures, poor school performance, and lack of family support (Desai et al., 2024). Students who do not complete grade 12 have an unemployment rate of more than half, and nearly six in ten unemployed youth have yet to get their first job (Statistics South Africa, 2025).
In addition to educational hurdles, Langa’s youth also encounter significant health challenges. South Africa has a high rate of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, with approximately 365 teens giving birth every day (van Niekerk et al., 2024). Adolescents also face higher risks of HIV and other STIs than any other age group in South Africa (Price et al., 2024). These health issues often further disrupt young peoples’ educational and employment prospects.
Theory of change
We believe that if we facilitate health and urban space co-design workshops for youth focused on increasing autonomy over individual design processes and directions, and support them in leading their peers through the same process as facilitators, then they will develop innovations aimed at solving their living environment and community healthcare challenges; participants will gain practical experience and skills that they can highlight to improve their chances of employment.
Solution / Approach
Youth Co-Design Workshops
We will hold a five-day co-design workshop for up to 25 youth ages 16-19 that will introduce participants to the design process. Participants will work in teams to identify urban challenges they face in their community, and then create, prototype, and reflect on innovative solutions that are relevant to their lives in Langa. Along the way, they will gain relevant hard skills (sketching, prototyping, etc.) and soft skills (creativity, teamwork). Following the 5-day workshop, participants will help facilitate and lead a second workshop for 13-15-year-old students.
Community Healthcare Co-Creation
In addition to the youth-focused co-design workshops, this project will run a multi-day healthcare co-creation initiative centered on emergency care and women’s health challenges in Langa. This will bring together first responders, community members, and mothers who experienced teenage pregnancies to explore and address gaps in local healthcare delivery collaboratively. We will run programs such as conducting a community needs survey and first aid & CPR workshops and through these activities, participants will build agency, technical skills, and community-driven solutions that enhance access, recognition, and equity in healthcare delivery within Langa.
Next steps
Following the workshops, the South Africa team will create a publicly accessible, open-source set of lesson plans, workshop templates, and documentation to support continuation of the program by local leaders and past participants.
References
- BizNews. (2025, June 9). Langa: A vibrant community overcoming legacy of apartheid. BizNews. link
- Cape Town Tourism. (2023, May 9). Langa. link
- Desai, R., Magan, A., Ruiter, R., Reddy, P., & Mercken, L. (2024). Understanding Why Youth Drop Out of School in South Africa. SAGE Open, 14(1). link
- Human Sciences Research Council. (2023, June 13). Voices of Langa: a 100-year social history of Cape Town’s oldest township. link
- Price, M. A., Kuteesa, M., Oladimeji, M., Brumskine, W., Edward, V., Makkan, H., Mthembu, F., Muturi-Kioi, V., Chetty-Makkan, C., & Maenetje, P. (2024). High STI burden among a cohort of adolescents aged 12–19 years in a youth-friendly clinic in South Africa. PLOS ONE, 19(7). link
- Statistics South Africa. (2023, October 10). MEDIA RELEASE: Census 2022 Population Count Results. Statssa.gov.za. link
- Statistics South Africa. (2025, May 13). South Africa’s Youth in the Labour Market: a Decade in Review. Statssa.gov.za. link
- van Niekerk, A.-M., Pretorius, L., & Grant, L. (2024, September 13). 1 in 7 Moms in SA Are Teens. Bhekisisa. link
- Watts, B., & Veidt, E. (2019, June 3). Rewriting history: Langa schools find success despite setbacks. MUSA . link
Contact
Libby Hsu, Lecturer; MIT D-Lab Associate Director of Academics
