OUR NEWS
Reaching families where they are: A playful and powerful “Home Visiting Model” in Randfontein
Co-authored by ACFS and DO MORE FOUNDATION
In many of South Africa’s under-resourced communities, the earliest years of a child’s life are often the most overlooked. Thousands of children remain at home instead of attending early learning centres – sometimes due to affordability, sometimes due to cultural perceptions, and often due to sheer lack of access. But while the child waits, so does their development. And the consequences of this “wait for Grade R” mentality are severe – missed opportunities for early stimulation, school readiness, and lifelong wellbeing.
This is the urgent gap that ACFS and the DO MORE FOUNDATION (with the financial backing from Investec) are addressing through a dynamic home visiting programme in Randfontein, supported by RCL FOODS and brought to life through an impactful partnership with Kids Collab.
“Scoping for Impact: Uncovering What Boksburg Needs”
Before we act, we listen. That’s the ethos behind the ‘Everyone Gets to PLAY’ model’s scoping process, a community-led journey that ensures real needs shape real solutions. In Boksburg, our implementing partner ACFS Community Education took this to heart, leading a deeply immersive scoping process that didn’t just gather data - it uncovered opportunity, challenge, and human urgency. “From the moment we stepped into Boksburg, you could feel the need,” reflected Jabu Mthembu-Dlamini (Community work Lead at DO MORE FOUNDATION). “Children were on pavements, in streets, sitting with parents at roadside stalls. You didn’t need a formal survey to see the urgency, it was in plain sight.”
What does scoping look like in practice?
While the DO MORE FOUNDATION provides the guiding framework through our Scoping Terms of Reference, it’s our partners who bring this framework to life. In Boksburg, ACFS led the charge - recruiting local youth as data collectors, developing participatory tools, and blending quantitative rigour with on-the-ground intuition. These youth, drawn from the very communities we aimed to serve, were recruited and trained in data ethics, research tools, and community entry strategies. Armed with clipboards and local knowledge, they stepped into homes, ECD centres, street corners, and ward meetings - gathering not just numbers, but insights.
Reimagining Early Learning Access: How ACFS “Resource Hubs” Are turning Community Grit into Gold
Co-authored by the DO MORE FOUNDATION and ACFS
In many parts of South Africa, the earliest years of a child’s life unfold in spaces full of love but short on support. For families living in under-resourced communities, access to quality early learning isn’t just limited. It’s often entirely out of reach. Centres are too far. Fees are too high. Resources are too few. And caregivers? Often left doing their best with very little.
But in Randfontein, something different is happening - something rooted in community and growing quietly, powerfully, from the inside out.
The ACFS Resource Hub Model, supported by the DO MORE FOUNDATION and made possible through the generous support of Siqalo, is one such response. It’s not a silver bullet, and it doesn’t promise quick fixes. But what it does offer is something rare: a locally grown, practical model that gives ECD practitioners real tools to do what they’ve always wanted to do - nurture young minds, with confidence, creativity and care.
Molteno’s Birth Certificate Campaign: Overcoming Rural Challenges in South Africa
What is a birth certificate, and why is it important?
A birth certificate is an official document that proves a person’s birth and provides their basic information. It is a child’s first official record of existence, confirming their identity, age, and nationality. In South Africa, this document is important for children because it offers legal proof of identity and citizenship, which are essential for accessing basic rights and services. Without it, children may face difficulties in getting healthcare, enrolling in school, receiving social assistance such as the child support grant, or being protected under the law. According to Hall, Almeleh, Giese, Mphaphuli, Slemming, Mathys., et al (2024), a birth certificate is an enabling document, a gateway to a range of critical services that support children in reaching their developmental potential.
The National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy (2015) recognises that every child should have the opportunity to access early learning, care, and support from birth. However, formal ECD centres require birth certificates for registration and subsidy, which can be a challenge for children who are undocumented.
Beyond the Centre: How a Home Visiting Model is Closing the ECD Access Gap in Rural South Africa
In South Africa, the early childhood development (ECD) conversation is still largely dominated by centre-based models. Yet in communities like Molteno in the Eastern Cape (where infrastructure is limited, poverty is entrenched, and many families live far from any formal care facilities) this approach leaves too many young children behind.
According to South Africa’s 2022 ECD Census, only 35% of children aged 0–5 attend any form of non-school ECD programme on a given day. This means that approximately 65%, or around 2.26 million young children, do not have access to structured early learning opportunities. For many of these children, particularly in rural areas like Molteno, the absence of nearby centres, infrastructure constraints, and economic hardship all contribute to the systemic exclusion from early learning. The result? Children enter the school system developmentally unprepared - not because of an innate learning disability, but because the system itself has created barriers to their development.
This is the gap that the Khululeka Family Home Visiting Programme (funded by RCL FOODS' corporate social investment) was designed to fill.
Beyond Promises: What It Really Takes to Start Something That Lasts
Starting something meaningful doesn’t begin with a ribbon-cutting. It begins with listening, showing up, and staying when others don’t. In Boksburg, where poverty sits in plain sight and young children are often invisible in policy and service delivery, we’ve had to take a different path - one built on trust, patience, and presence. When DO MORE FOUNDATION and ACFS Community Education brought the ‘Everyone Gets to PLAY’ model to Boksburg in February 2025, we knew it wouldn’t be easy. We also knew it would be worth it.
Our entry into Boksburg was made possible through Siqalo Foods, an anchor business that believed in starting with early childhood. Their initial R300,000 investment helped kickstart scoping and planning, and their continued support (together with Rama funding) - amounting to R2.5 million to date - has allowed us to seed meaningful change in the communities surrounding their factory. But it wasn’t just about the funding. Siqalo played a catalytic role in connecting us to the lived realities of their employees, many of whom live in nearby areas like Ramaphosa, Thokoza, Katlehong and Wattville. With their support, we began our work with a scoping process, led by ACFS.