30 Years of Impact
Ku Mamisa Swi Hlayisa Mali Ni Switirhisiwa.
Breastfeeding saves money and resources.
That was on a placard in Acornhoek yesterday. Not in a policy brief. On cardboard, held up by a community health worker, in her own language.
It is also, precisely, the economic case. Breastmilk is the one form of infant nutrition that costs a household nothing, needs no supply chain and cannot be priced out of reach. Where it is displaced, families absorb the cost, in formula, in clinic visits, in the long tail of undernutrition that follows a child into a classroom and out of it. In South Africa, only 22% of infants under six months are exclusively breastfed.
The Fund joined Well Being Africa, the Mpumalanga Department of Health and community partners to mark World Breastfeeding Week 2026 and its theme: Strengthen What Works. Shadi Nyokong, CSDT programme manager, represented the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund.
Three things we took from the day:
Exclusive breastfeeding is one of the highest-return investments available in the early years of a child's life.
Communities are not the audience for development work. They are the ones who identify what is wrong where they live, and who should determine how it is answered. Yesterday that answer arrived in Xitsonga, on a placard, unprompted.
And partnership means jointly owning the problem, not dividing up the credit.
This sits under Alleviation of Poverty in our new strategy, Legacy 2.0 Khuluma Mntwana Sikuzwe. Speak, child, so that we may hear you. It applies to the communities raising those child#WorldBreastfeedingWeeke#alleviationofpovertyn#servelikemadibaLikeMadiba
A child is about to testify. Across the room from her, the person who hurt her. At her feet, a golden retriever called Toffee Beanz.
In April, Toffee became the first therapy dog in South Africa to support a child witness in court. He explains nothing to her. What he does is change the conditions under which she is asked to speak.
That is the argument our Child Safety and Protection Unit took to the Jelly Beanz Child Trauma Conference in Cape Town this week, where Anzio Jacobs presented Boy Joy, our case that what a child is able to tell us depends on what surrounds her, not on how brave she is.
Prevention of Violence Against Children, under our new strategy Legacy 2.0 Khuluma Mntwana Sikuzwe. Speak, child, so that we may hear you.
Thank you to Jelly Beanz and Edith Kriel. And to Toffee, who is theirs. 🐾
"We cannot successfully operate in a failed society. The two are inseparable."
Daniel Mminele, Chairperson of Nedbank Group, at the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund 30th Anniversary Gala.
Over the past two decades, more than R160 million has reached the Fund through the Nedbank Children's Affinity Programme, goodwill channelled by Nedbank clients into programmes that protect and uplift children across South Africa.
His message to the room was plain. Support for children is a responsibility, and it is good business. The prosperity of this country is tied to the wellbeing of its children, and institutions that understand their own long-term interests understand that too.
Thirty years of showing up. Thank you, Nedbank, for walking this road with us. The next chapter starts now.
#NMCF30Years #ServeLikeMadiba
A powerful message: a society cannot thrive when its children are left behind. Investing in children is not only a moral responsibility—it is an investment in the future stability, peace, and prosperity of our communities. The work of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and Nedbank demonstrates what meaningful, sustained partnership can achieve. When institutions invest in children today, they help build stronger societies tomorrow. As peacebuilders, we strongly believe that peace starts with investing in children. Their wellbeing, protection, education, and positive development are foundations for a peaceful future. #NMCF30Years #ServeLikeMadiba #PeaceStartsWithUs #InvestInChildren #Peacebuilding
💯✌️❤️👑🙏Amen! Glory to God! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah🇿🇦🇮🇱
The Nelson Mandela Children's Fund launched the Sustainable Livelihoods component of the Boikhuco OVC Project in Thaba Nchu, Free State – an area under Barolong traditional leadership, in the Motheo district of Mangaung.
Boikhuco has walked with this community since 2005. What began as a project of the Buikhuco Old Age Home in Botshabelo now reaches 351 orphaned and vulnerable children across seven villages.
The home-based carers who started this work found something that no food parcel could fix: child-headed households, children without birth certificates, children not receiving the grants that are legally theirs, children going days without a meal. The need was never only food. It was income.
That is what today is about. Through NMCF's Sustainable Livelihoods Project, Boikhuco is helping families generate their own income and grow their own food – so that a child's next meal does not depend on the next donation.
Alongside this, the project continues to help children access what they are entitled to: legal documents, social grants and a pla#servelikemadibaS#nmcf30yearsba #nmcf30years
The author whose story the world is currently watching spent Friday with us.
As part of Women's Month, the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund hosted acclaimed author Sue Nyathi, whose novel The Polygamist has just been adapted into a Netflix series that reached No. 3 globally.
She did not come to give a speech. She came to have a conversation.
Sue sat with our staff and spoke openly about her work, the road that got her here, and what women's empowerment actually looks like once you strip away the slogans. Then she opened the floor, and our team asked the questions they really wanted answered.
The through-line of the morning: a woman's story is not decoration. It is evidence. And the same is true for the girls and young women this Fund exists to serve – their stories carry weight, and someone has to be willing to publish them, fund them and act on them.
Sue also left two of her books with the Fund, which now live in our office for the team to read.
Thank you, Sue, for your generosity a#servelikemadiba #nmcf30yearse#ThePolygamistyears #ThePolygamist
🎥 Watch a moment from the conversation below.
At the BRAG Employability Summit 2026, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund reflected on 30 years of work building the foundations young people need to thrive, from health and safety to education, leadership, skills development and livelihoods.
Representing NMCF, Neo Dube shared how our work has evolved from supporting children in crisis to building pathways that connect young people to opportunity.
Our message is simple: talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. Creating meaningful pathways to employment means investing early, listening to young people and connecting them to the skills, networks and opportunities they need to shape their futures.
As we look to the next 30 years, NMCF is calling on employers, partners and funders to help build those pathways with young people, not simply for them.
#NMCF30Years #ServeLikeMadiba
Absolutely beautiful
As part of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund's advocacy objectives under the Khuluma Mntwana Sikuzwe (Speak, child. We are listening) strategy, Anzio Jacobs joined UNICEF and Kutunga in Durban for a discussion on the effects of digitalisation without infrastructure and what this means for children.
The discussion formed part of a broader conversation on a SADC Protocol on Children for Industrialisation, Agricultural Transformation and a Just Energy Transition, with a shared focus on ensuring that development frameworks consider children's rights, safety and protection.
The message is clear: as countries accelerate development and embrace new technologies, children must be considered in the policies, systems and infrastructure that shape their future.
📍 Umhlanga, Durban
#NMCF30Years #ServeLikeMadiba
A powerful reminder that children must be at the heart of development. 🌍👧🏽👦🏽 Digital transformation, industrialisation and the energy transition should not only create opportunities but also protect children’s rights, safety and well-being. Children must not simply inherit the future—we must ensure they have a voice in shaping it. #ChildrensRights #ChildParticipation #PeaceEducation #ServeLikeMadiba
Brilliant!
🌍 This International Youth Day, we recognise that young people across South Africa face different realities, but share many of the same ambitions: to learn, build skills, find opportunities and have a say in the decisions that affect their lives.
This is central to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund's Youth Leadership Programme (YLP). The programme equips young people with leadership and advocacy skills and creates opportunities for them to engage on issues affecting their communities.
Whether the challenge is unemployment, inequality, limited opportunities or access to services, young people have an important role in shaping the solutions.
Through Mandelathon, we are inviting South Africans to invest in the next generation. Every gift to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund helps create opportunities for children and young people to learn, lead and thrive.
Support Mandelathon and help us continue changing the way society treats its children.
Gift today: www.nelsonmandelachildrensfund.co#InternationalYouthDaya#mandelathona#nmcf30yearso#servelikemadibaServeLikeMadiba
