EARLY CHILDHOOD:
IT TAKES A VILLAGE​​
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Many children grow up in households with little access to resources, services and education, and are often inadequately prepared for the future.
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The Saville Foundation supports entities and individual centres that make unique contributions across the early learning years.
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​Our partners focus on the care of teachers and quality curricula, with an emphasis on nutrition and psycho-social support. This is combined with innovative opportunities for little ones to understand the relationship between entrepreneurship and the respect for the natural environment.
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Early Years Entrepreneurship Magic
Who learns
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Little ones
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Teachers
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Parents
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NGOs
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Communities
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Policymakers
What they learn
Little ones
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To reimagine their environment through entrepreneurial inquiry—asking what do I have, and how can I see it differently?
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Practical tools to build and sustain income-generating businesses, starting from feasible ideas rooted in their local realities.
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How to cultivate problem-solving, creativity, and self-sufficiency—skills that go far beyond the classroom.
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A shift in mindset: anything can be a side hustle, everything has value with imagination.
Teachers
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How to guide students in turning creativity into real income streams, both in school and in their communities.
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How to develop new pedagogical approaches through peer knowledge exchange and exposure to student-led enterprise.
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Environmental awareness through recycling-based business models, encouraging sustainability and innovation.
NGOs
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From each other through collaborative market days, where NGOs, schools, and communities interact, support, and inspire.
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About friendly competitions and shared platforms (e.g. WhatsApp groups) to spark momentum and co-create value.
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How to amplify their own work by framing it through an entrepreneurial lens, particularly in early childhood development.
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Ways to tap into their existing purpose 'on steroids', igniting new energy and framing through community-inspired creativity.
Parents
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To question the status quo of business and economy through their children’s curiosity and projects.
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To witness transformation in their children’s confidence and initiative, which in turn reframes how they see possibility in their own lives.
Principals
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The basics of business and operations management, recognising their schools as evolving, living enterprises.
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How to develop sustainability strategies rooted in resourcefulness, collaboration, and entrepreneurial thinking.
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To feel part of a global energy, learning with and from others, empowered by collective movement.
Communities
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How to engage through intergenerational learning as children ask questions that activate local wisdom and experience.
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That local entrepreneurs can get involved—mentoring, sharing, and learning—alongside students.
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The power in community members beginning to see their own lives differently by participating in projects, buying in, or co-creating income streams.
Policymakers
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How to integrate entrepreneurship into schools through experiential, inclusive education.
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To observe how this model unlocks artistic expression, innovation, and engagement across all subjects.
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To recognise the exponential potential of the side hustle—not as an extracurricular bolt-on, but as a foundational, adaptive learning pathway.
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Through participating in training sessions for district subject advisors, discovering how this thinking can be scaled and embedded systemically.
Exponential effect
When entrepreneurship is introduced at an early age, the impact ripples far beyond income generation.
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Children learn to reimagine their world—turning scraps into products, curiosity into action, and ideas into enterprise. As teachers, parents, and principals witness this transformation, they too begin to question outdated models of education and economy.
Communities are revitalised through shared creativity and intergenerational participation, while NGOs discover fresh purpose through collaboration.
Policymakers see a living proof of scalable, systemic innovation—where every recycled bottle, market day, or side hustle becomes a seed for new futures. What begins as early inquiry becomes lifelong agency.
Our role
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Launched youth enterprise competitions in 2007 to spark entrepreneurial thinking.
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Explored models to embed this mindset into curriculum and school systems.
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Partnered with Eco-Schools to expand awards into green business creation challenges.
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Supported curriculum design for early years entrepreneurial learning.
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Piloted the Early Years Entrepreneurship Challenge (now in its 3rd year).
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Helped unlock whole-community involvement through market days and parent participation.
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Connected with the GROW ECD network—principles now shared in national ECD forums.
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Vision: Gift this model freely to every ECD centre in South Africa.
The CoRE of Change
Who learns
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Little ones
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Women Educators & ECD Practitioners
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Local Communities
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Education Stakeholders, Funders & Policymakers
What they learn
Little ones
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Experience enriched early learning through safe, stimulating environments rooted in Montessori pedagogy and Earth stewardship principles
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Achieve near-universal literacy (94%) and numeracy gains well above provincial and national averages—a profound deviation from expected outcomes
Women Educators & Practitioners
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Receive rigorous Montessori-based CoRE training, certified by AMI and delivered through Indaba Institute, blending theory with practical experience over multiple modules
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Learn to create culturally relevant, child-centred classrooms using local materials, multilingual facilitation, and trauma-informed approaches
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Build leadership and operational confidence—many earn qualifications (e.g., NQF Level 5, first aid, story creation) while transforming how they view themselves as educators and community members
Communities & Caregivers
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Learn to value education as shared infrastructure, not charity. They witness tangible benefits: pride, participation, and new educational identity
Funders, Partners & Policymakers
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Recognise how bottom-up investment in ECD and teacher preparation yields exponential returns—improved metrics, dignity, and collective uplift
Exponential effect
What begins as a context-sensitive pilot in Kayamandi now offers a grassroots template for national and global change. As women educators step into their roles, they elevate literacy and numeracy outcomes dramatically—94% of children outperforming national averages by a wide margin.
As CoRE grows, these trained educators become local leaders, mentors, and culture-shapers. Communities shift from disempowered to empowered: caregivers reclaim education ownership, schools become stable, safe spaces, and children emerge with capability and dignity.
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The ripple is unmistakable: individual agency feeds collective uplift, which feeds systems reform. The learning paradigm shifts—not in theory, but in living, breathing communities. Over time, Indaba’s CoRE model has the potential to redefine what foundational education looks like across South Africa—and beyond.
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Our role
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TSF has supported strategically, provided bridging finance during a tough cash flow period.
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Provided seed funding for IF to complete their saturation of all ECD centres in Kayamandi (a deeply challenged township near Stellenbosch).
Where Learning Meets Livelihood
Who learns
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Little ones
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ECD centre owners
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Teachers and staff at ECD centres
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Partner NGOs, local stakeholders
Exponential effect
What starts as business training becomes a catalyst for broader transformation. Centre owners move from uncertainty to confidence, better managing classrooms, re-registering centres, and improving quality — all while generating income and creating employment.
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More women-led centres become affordable, sustainable, and community-rooted. Parents feel safer, teachers gain clarity, and learners enjoy enriched learning spaces. As programmes scale across cities like Cape Town, Gqeberha, Durban, and Midrand, Grow ECD’s model shifts sectors: ECD isn’t just care—it’s community-led entrepreneurship. The result? Grassroots regeneration through education that sustains itself and nourishes futures.
What they learn
Little ones​
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How to develop strong peer relationships and emotional capacity—80% and 76% of learners meet or exceed expected standards in these areas, respectively.
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Structured, Play-Based Learning through a daily, age-aligned curriculum (available via the Grow Giraffe app), where they engage in consistent, developmentally appropriate play and inquiry-based activities.
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Cognitive, emotional, and social competencies that pave the way for confident, creative, and resilient learners entering formal schooling.
Centre Owners
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How to run their preschools as successful social enterprises: budgeting, financial planning, registration, and sustainable business modelling.
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Personal leadership skills, team management, and operational confidence.
Teachers & Staff
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How to implement play-based, NCF-aligned curriculum using provided classroom kits.
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Daily teaching tools and foundational pedagogical support via the Giraffe mobile app
Local Stakeholders & partner NGOs
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How to support ECD centres with relevant training, financial access, and tech tools to uplift quality and operational independence.
Our role
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TSF initially played a catalytic seed funding role early on, with ad hoc support as required from TSF and aligned corporate ICM Ltd.
From care to catalyst
Who learns
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Children attending ten partner preschools in the Valley of 1000 Hills and Molweni
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Centre leaders and educators
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Parents and families
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Educators
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Community members
Exponential effect
What started as one shipping-container preschool has sparked a model of public-good micro-enterprise rooted in the local community. Principal Bright Zondi’s school is now financially stable, serving more children, paying teachers better, and running sustainable nutrition and garden programs.
This transformation ripples outward: teachers and principals gain leadership confidence and better income; parents and caregivers develop trust in education as a shared responsibility; and the community begins to see education as locally rooted, co-owned infrastructure.
Even when early prototypes of Project Bright didn’t last, the insight did—teaching Focus on iThemba how regenerative education must be rooted in dignity. That lesson now informs their support systems and how future learning sites are imagined, built, and sustained.
What they learn
Children
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To thrive in welcoming, safe, and age-appropriate learning environments—often built from converted shipping containers and vibrant gardens.
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Foundational early childhood development, emotional literacy, and social-emotional skills through play, arts, mentorship, and restorative engagement.
Centre Leaders & Educators
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Practical qualifications (including NQF Level 4 ECD credentials, first aid, storytelling, and leadership training).
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How to develop business, financial, and quality management skills, becoming confident in their roles and better equipped to run sustainable centres.
Parents & Families
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To build loving, consistent relationships through parenting workshops and emotional support programs.
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Tools to support their children’s development and deepen their role as engaged, capable co-educators.
Youth & Educators
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How to build resilience and teamwork through sport, develop emotional literacy.
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How to co-create safe, trauma-informed learning environments that support every child’s full potential.
Community Members
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To participate in volunteering, leadership training, and events that cultivate shared pride and social cohesion.
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To see educational infrastructure as something co-designed, co-owned, and sustained from within.
Our role
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Provided seed and ad hoc grant capital to enable the community to build a community centre.
From Nutrition to Nation Building
Who learns
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Young children (0–5 years) in underserved communities
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Early Childhood Development (ECD) practitioners and centre owners
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Parents and caregivers
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Community leaders, public institutions, and policymakers
Exponential effect
This work transcends feeding or caregiving—it reshapes ecosystems. Daily nutrition supports cognitive growth. Centres transform into quality learning hubs. Caregivers become proactive partners.
Youth programming and enterprise initiatives empower local women, disabled youth, and caregivers into economically active participants. Over time, Do More serves as the backbone for systems-level integration—where early learning, nutrition, and economic dignity knit together.
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The ripple effect? Communities shift from dependency to co-creation. Systems respond to real needs. Education and health outcomes rise. South African children—a generation—gain foundation for futures shaped by respect, resilience, and shared opportunity.
What they learn
Young Children
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Receive nutritious meals daily (DoMore porridge) and learn through play-based ECD programmes aligned with national curriculum frameworks.
ECD Practitioners & Centre Owners
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Gain access to nutrition initiatives, quality guidelines, and business support that help centres improve operations, boost attendance, and strengthen sustainability.
Parents & Caregivers
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Engage in facilitated sessions covering healthy eating, play, attachment, and language development through the Eat Love Play Talk programme, improving habit formation and bonding.
Community Stakeholders & Policymakers
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Experience a collective impact model guided by Do More Foundation that coordinates public-private-NGO collaboration for strategic, scalable ECD outcomes across regions.
Our role
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Facilitated opening of UK-based foundation, enabling international funding flow.
Where Culture Designs the System
Who learns
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First Nations children aged 0–8 (growing toward adolescence)
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Elders, families & community members
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First Nations educators & leaders
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Funders, researchers & policymakers
Exponential effect
Children’s Ground is not simply a project—it’s a 25-year generational transformation. By weaving cultural knowledge and western evidence into place-based systems co-led with communities, every child and family participates in shaping change.
Today, 82% of children in early learning programs are engaged—up from 14% before CG’s work began and 87% of families report improved physical and emotional wellbeing. Over 80% of adult participants were previously unemployed but now hold local roles and governance responsibilities
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This isn’t just impact—it’s community re-coding: culture-leading service design, intergenerational learning loops, and self-determined pathways emerging from lived wisdom. What starts in single communities ripples into national systems change where First Nations knowledge systems become a source of justice, wellbeing, and social renewal.
What they learn
Children & Families
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Access integrated culturally‑centred Early Learning, Health, Economic Development, Community Development, and Creative & Cultural Development—all designed in partnership with their communities
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Engage in pre-birth to adulthood programming across generations, blending First Nations and western knowledge systems.
Educators & Leaders
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Co-design and implement holistic, long-term systems together with communities, rooted in self-determination and cultural strength
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Apply “networked incubation”—strategic design with governance by First Nations people, supported by external networks and evidence-based evaluation
Funders & Policymakers
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Experience long‑term, flexible funding models built for generational change—not short-term outputs
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Measure impact in culturally meaningful outcomes (childhood learning, employment, wellbeing, identity, governance)