“In a time when we have stopped growing and started simply surviving, our individual dimensions of wellness have become unbalanced and, as such, we need a unique, personalized approach to restoring that balance – that of the harmony of wellbeing” (Dr. John Cavill).
Located on a 40-acre country estate in Plettenberg Bay on South Africa’s famous Garden Route, Kwendalo is a holistic Wellness Centre for both day visitors and residential retreats. The estate’s gardens produce biodynamically grown fruit and vegetables and medicinal herbs, which are sold in the Harvest Farm Shop and used in food preparation at its Green Café.
Kwendalo was founded in 2020 by Dr John Cavill, a highly successful British serial entrepreneur who has been a lifelong student of comprehensive wellness. John’s objective was to create, an environment that balances six key dimensions of wellness – physical, emotional, environmental, mental, social and spiritual wellbeing. In 1988, after an early career in the IT industry, he founded Logistical Networks PLC a high growth networking services business which after 10 years was acquired by Datatec, a South African international ICT company, when he first visited the country in his role as a main board director. He was subsequently recognised as one of Europe’s Top 500 Dynamic Entrepreneurs, and in 2000 he founded Intermezzo Ventures Ltd a research and consulting business providing coaching and mentoring services focusing on helping entrepreneurial teams with high growth potential achieve success. In 2012 he was awarded a DBA by Henley Business School in the University of Reading for his doctoral research into growth entrepreneurship. Although Intermezzo Ventures Ltd is no longer active he still retains his links with Henley Business School, where he is a regular guest speaker, and, until recently, was a Visiting Fellow at the School of Leadership, Organisations and Behavior, and a Director of Henley Business Angels.
While John spends most of his time in the UK, where he lives with his wife and family, his main focus since 2020 has been on building his team in South Africa and establishing Kwendalo, which means “of nature” in the local isiXhosa language. This has involved renovating farm buildings on the estate, creating the wellness and learning centres, setting up Kwendalo Institute, and developing the gardens so the farm can grow fresh fruit, vegetables and medicinal herbs that “honors our farm to table philosophies of biodiversity and biodynamically grown good, honest food”. The cafe also serves coffee made from beans supplied by “Bean There” a South African business that sources single origin quality African beans that are Fairtrade, Ecocert and Rainforest Alliance certified, and shares Kwendalo’s ecological and socially minded values with respect to biodiversity, environmentally friendly agriculture, equality and sustainability.
Since 2020, the Institute has been piloting, with a local school, a nature-based education project that is based on the UK’s Harmony Project of which John has been a part-time founder Trustee since 2023. The project’s philosophy is based on the book written by HRH The Prince of Wales et al. in 2012 entitled “Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World” (Harper Collins). It aims to transform education to ensure it is fit for purpose in preparing young people to address the environmental and social problems the world is facing. It works with educators to develop learning based on the natural world that will enable young people to live more sustainably.
Having successfully completed the four-year pilot programme with Bahia Formosa School, a local primary school that was underperforming, the school has become the first Harmony Accredited School outside of the UK, with the children having vastly improved their academic skills along with their social and environmental abilities. The intention now is to roll it out to other schools in Plettenberg Bay before eventually implementing it in schools regionally and across South Africa. However, Kwendalo Institute is also in the process of developing similar nature-based initiatives to extend into tertiary education.
Kwendalo is a for profit venture that generates revenue from the visitor accommodation it provides, its wellness and educational services, the Green Café, the Harvest Farm Shop and the hire of its facilities, including the learning centre. Not only does it promote harmony with self, society and nature but it exemplifies Harmonious Entrepreneurship as it has a triple bottom line business model in which Profit, Planet and People are in harmony with each other. In so doing it addresses the whole issue of Sustainability and particularly SDGs 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) and 4 (Quality Education), as well as 10 (Reduced Inequalities), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).
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