The Philippi Angels Under-12-year-old team, 2006/2007 B-division Champs

Growing up in the United States, Ian played baseball from an early age and continues to this day to play and coach in the Cape Town area.

He has had the opportunity to play at an advanced college and adult level and to coach youths to South African national championships.

At present, he has shifted his focus to develop a competitive baseball team in the formerly-disadvantaged community of Phillipi Township, Cape Town, South Africa.

Major League Baseball in North America boasts some of the highest salaries in professional sports. Baseball is now played in all 6 populated continents and is showcased internationally in the World Baseball Classic. In the inauguration of the event in 2006, South Africa competed as the only team from the African continent and performed respectably, nearly beating Team Canada who went on to beat the USA powerhouse the following day.

Despite its amatuer status in South African sport, baseball is popular among white and "coloured" or mixed-racial-background communities in Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg, the largest cities in the country.

With a few small exceptions, it has yet to be introduced to the largest segment of the country's population, the black South Africans.

In 2006, Nyameko Gabada put together a team of youth from his township of Philippi and began the journey of the Philippi Angels.

Click here to view their video

Click here to go to the Philippi Angels website

In 2006, Charles published his first book of photographs of the diverse people and places of Stellenbosch.

Currently, he is working on a collaborative art project with residents of an informal settlement under a bridge in Stellenbosch.