About Us
Our Mission
To empower children, youth, educators, families and communities in underserved areas through inclusive, innovative and holistic education programmes that promote lifelong learning, socio-emotional wellbeing and sustainable development.
Our Vision
A South Africa where every child and young person has equitable access to quality learning, supportive communities, and opportunities to thrive academically, socially and economically.
Our Purpose
ZERi Africa exists to disrupt the cycle of inequality in township and rural education by improving learning outcomes, strengthening education ecosystems, and equipping communities with the knowledge, tools and partnerships needed to achieve long-term development.
Core Strengths
✔ Context-responsive and community-driven
✔ Focus on sustainable capacity building
✔ Integrated education and development solutions
✔ Practical, evidence-based frameworks and tools
✔ Partnership-oriented and scalable models
Why We Exist
South Africa continues to face deep, systemic educational challenges, including:
- Under-resourced schools and limited ICT tools
- Poor literacy and numeracy performance
- Low participation in STEM subjects
- High dropout rates in Grades 10–12
- Limited parental and community support structures
- Socio-economic pressures affecting learner wellbeing
ZERi Africa responds by building community-centred pathways that integrate academic, social, digital and developmental support.
Our Model
Our Model, or continuum of services, provides children and families with a seamless series of free, coordinated, best-practice programs. We focus on the needs of children at every developmental stage with specific programs addressing pre-natal care, infants, early childhood development, primary school, high school, youth out of school, and tertiary support.
Academic excellence is a principal goal of our model, but high-quality Community Learning Spaces are only one of the means we use to achieve it. These provide communities with nurturing stable families, supporting youth development, improving health through fitness and nutrition, and cultivating engaged and involved adults and community stakeholders.
Overall, we seek to:
(1) Maximize educational achievements for underserved children.
(2) Ensure that each of the programs in the pipeline is strong and incorporates best practices.
(3) Foster strong links across programs to smooth transitions and guarantee that programs are pedagogically continuous.
(4) Stay community-based and responsive to local community needs; and
(5) Provide relevant data to program staff so that they can improve services, and to policymakers and decision-makers so that they can get the best return on their investments.
Children can enter the continuum at any age, and they will be supported with high-quality programs. We offer aggressive outreach efforts and multiple entrance points because we want families to easily access our programmes whenever they can do so. Once they have entered, we do not want them to leave.
Message
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