Roadmap

What we've built. What we won't build yet. And exactly why.

This page is written for funders, partners and government. It states plainly where the line between Phase 1 and Phase 2 sits — because the most important design decision in this platform is a thing we are refusing to ship.

Status

Two phases, one hard line between them

The line is simple: Phase 1 contains no personal data about any vulnerable person. Phase 2 does — and therefore does not exist until it can be done safely.

Phase 1 — Visibility & navigation

Live

Everything in Phase 1 is public content and anonymous signals. It can help a household today and it cannot harm one.

Verified NPO directoryTownship organisations, findable for the first time — with registration credentials shown honestly rather than used as a gate.
The PathwaysStep-by-step answers to real situations — the grant routes, the documents, and what to do when the documents don't exist. No fact publishes before it is verified with the issuing department.
The Needs boardWhat each organisation needs right now — volunteers, goods, funds, skills — connected directly to people who can meet the need.
Township-level demand dataAnonymous signals — which situations, which document blockers, which areas — producing evidence that currently exists nowhere: not in a department, not in a study.

Phase 2 — Referral & case tracking

Designed · deliberately unbuilt

Phase 2 follows a consenting household from "no documents" to "grant approved" — a named case, referred to a named organisation, with a status that moves. It is the most fundable part of this platform and the most dangerous, because it means holding data about children in crisis. The schema is designed. The build is gated behind the seven preconditions below, and we will not shortcut them — not for a funder, not for a deadline.

The gate

Seven preconditions for Phase 2

Each of these must exist before the first household record is created. This list is the pitch — an organisation that will build a register of vulnerable children without these is not one anyone should fund.

A registered social worker in the loop

Only a SACSSP-registered social worker may open a case involving a minor. Not our staff, not an NPO administrator, not a volunteer.

Recorded, informed, revocable consent

Captured from the caregiver, timestamped, stored, and revocable at any time — with revocation actually deleting what it should.

Field-level encryption on every identifier

Names, ID numbers, dates of birth — encrypted at the field level, not just at the disk level.

An immutable audit log

Every view of every record, by whom, when — append-only, and reviewable by an external party.

Role-based access with hard walls

An organisation sees only the referrals made to it. No one browses the register. There is no register to browse.

A defined retention and deletion period

Data about a child in crisis is not an asset to accumulate. Closed cases age out on a published schedule.

A named child-protection escalation path

When a case reveals abuse or immediate danger, it goes to a named, qualified person — a person, not a form.

Phase 2, illustrated

What a case would look like

Concept — not built, not live, no real data

Referred

Consent captured, social worker opens case

In progress

Pathway assigned, organisation accepts

Documents obtained

IDs, certificates, caregiver proof

Grant applied

SASSA application lodged

Grant approved

Income reaches the household

This status pipeline is the entire funding argument. It is the difference between "we helped some families" and "we moved 340 households from undocumented to grant-receiving in twelve months" — a sentence no one in government can currently say at township level. Phase 1's anonymous demand data tells us where the households are stuck. Phase 2 is what moves them — safely, or not at all.

What we are asking for

Specific asks, per partner

Not one vague appeal — four concrete ones. Each is small, cheap for the partner, and immediately useful to households.

Home Affairs

A mobile unit, on a schedule

Our demand data will show, in numbers, how many households in Etwatwa are blocked on late birth registration and death certificates. We are asking for scheduled mobile-unit visits against that demand — aggregated, verified, and delivered to your unit as a ready-made service list.

Social Development

Verification, then partnership

First: check our pathway facts — every step cites its source and nothing publishes unverified. Then: help us map which local organisations have registered social workers, the keystone of Phase 2. This platform strengthens the NPO sector's visibility and compliance — DSD's own mandate.

SASSA

Grant uptake, measured

Unclaimed grants are a measurable gap. Our pathways route eligible households to your offices with the correct documents on the first visit — fewer repeat queues for you, faster income for them. We ask only for facts confirmed and a named contact.

Funders & CSI partners

Fund Phase 2 — properly

Phase 1 is self-built and live. Phase 2 needs funding precisely because doing it safely — social workers, encryption, audits — costs money. We are asking you to fund the version with the safeguards, because we will not ship the version without them.

The restraint is the pitch.

If this roadmap reads like an organisation you could work with, the conversation starts with a fact-check meeting, not a funding ask. Contact Astute Tech Foundation — NPO 279-893, PBO 930085805, Section 18A approved.

Contact the foundation