In our own words
Vision and purpose
Our vision
- To change the trajectory of human society, in a single generation.
Our purpose
- To offer every child a fair start to life.
As stated in the Indaba Impact Overview, April 2024.
Why this, why here
The first six years decide more than any that follow.
Before a child learns to read, she learns whether the world is safe. Confidence, curiosity, language and the ability to settle to a task are forming long before school begins.
The human brain develops most between birth and six. In the first few years more than a million neural connections form every second. What is built then is built on for life; what is missed then is hard to recover.
South Africa shows the consequences plainly. Roughly a quarter of children under six attend an early learning programme regularly. Of those who do, fewer than half are on track for their age. By Grade 3, learners in the poorest 80 per cent of schools are around two and a half years behind the curriculum, and half of all learners have left school by Grade 12.
These are national figures, drawn from published studies and dated. We cite them not to alarm but to locate the problem precisely: it begins before school, and it begins with the quality of care and attention a very young child receives.
The context, dated
0–6
years: the period in which the human brain develops most
As of cited 2023
25%
of children under six attend an early learning programme regularly (2021)
As of 2021
2.5
behind the curriculum by Grade 3, in the poorest 80% of schools (2015)
As of 2015
50%
of learners have dropped out of school by Grade 12 (2016)
As of 2016
Secondary citations via Indaba's 2024 prospectus.
Our conviction
The world does not need a new pedagogy. It needs a way to deliver the best one to the children who have never had it.
Excellent early childhood practice exists, and has for more than a century. It is concentrated almost entirely among families who can pay for it. The injustice is one of delivery, and delivery can be fixed.
How we act on it
We begin with the women who are already there.
In the Cape Winelands, as across South Africa, young children spend their days in community early childhood centres run largely by women with little formal training and less support. They are the most important adults in those children's days.
The Foundation's answer, in the words of its 2024 overview, is a radical one: “We train women ECD teachers, who educate, empower and liberate children, en masse. Enabling the next generation to thrive, throughout their lives.”
Educational empowerment leads to economic empowerment, and to community empowerment. A woman who understands child development and can prepare an environment for it becomes a professional, a role model and, often, an advocate for children in her community. The children in her care experience the difference every day.
We do this through Community Rooted Education, delivered by our training partner the Indaba Institute, and we hold ourselves to the discipline of measuring what changes.
Profoundly, we believe: ECD is the best investment a society can make in its future.
The film
One adult at a time.
Scenes from the Foundation's film: the women, the classrooms and the streets where the work happens.
Watch the film: One Adult at a Time 4 minutes
Stills from One Adult at a Time (2026), the Indaba Foundation's film.
Where we come from
Rooted in the Cape Winelands.
2015
The Indaba Foundation is established
The start of an eight-year effort to build the people, programmes and partnerships on which community-rooted teacher training could grow.
2016
The Indaba Institute follows
The Foundation's training partner and pedagogical engine, today based in Somerset West.
2021
Kayamandi proof of concept
The first CoRE programme in South Africa: 24 days of contact time in English and isiXhosa, supported by Stellenbosch Municipality. Seventeen practitioners complete it with EsF certificates by November.
2023
Seven CoRE programmes
The Earth Stewardship and Nutrition curriculum rolled out.
2025
Kayamandi Group 1
35 teachers and principals from 31 early childhood centres begin a new programme.
June 2026
First independent child-outcome assessment
81% of 48 assessed children in 15 CoRE-affiliated programmes on track for their age. A snapshot, not yet a causal finding.
A note on wine
Many people first met Indaba through a bottle.
Indaba's story began in the Cape Winelands, and many supporters first encountered the name through Indaba Wines and Cape Classics. The communities connected to those vineyards are where the conviction behind the Foundation took shape: that the greatest lever for changing a society is the quality of care and education a child receives in the first years of life.
The wine is one way people have found us. The Foundation's work, and the giving that supports it, stand on their own.
Plainly
What the Foundation is, and is not.
We are
- A philanthropic foundation that funds and stewards Community Rooted Education, mentoring and independent evidence
- Focused on the adults who shape early childhood: practitioners, facilitators, and the pathway between them
- Committed to publishing results together with their limits
We are not
- An operator of early childhood centres
- A training institute: that is the Indaba Institute, our training partner
- A technology or venture company: that is Indaba Ventures
The three organisations share a conviction and work together. Their relationship is described on the Ecosystem page.
Deeper reading
The case in full
Next
See how the mission becomes practice.
Community Rooted Education, step by step: who it trains, how, and why it holds.