Heather Reynolds

Heather Reynolds is the founder of ‘God's Golden Acre’, a pioneering scheme which has resulted in saving thousands of desperately sick and dying South African children, who have been orphaned through HIV and AIDS.

God's Golden Acre was first started in the Reynolds' own home in Wartburg, South Africa. In 1999, the centre moved to Cato Ridge with nearly 100 children now living in homes built around the original homestead. Heather also established an extensive rural outreach project that now cares for more than 4,000 orphaned and abandoned children providing a basic food parcel, education and school uniforms.

Everyday more and more children are orphaned with the HIV/AIDS pandemic now reaching its peak in KwaZulu Natal. It is believed to be the worst affected area in the world with 36% of the population HIV+ and up to 250 deaths recorded every day. The story unfolds with South African born Heather Reynolds, who one day, when visiting a remote village, heard a baby's cry from one of the huts. She discovered the child was one of a dozen or so children left behind to look after themselves as their parents had died of AIDS. Returning home to the UK where Heather is domiciled, she researched the AIDS Pandemic and quickly discovered that the situation was set to worsen.

Back in South Africa, the Reynolds family opened their home to the sick and dying children in the region. So began "God's Golden Acre."

Having presented a paper at the Worlds AIDS Conference in 2000, Heather was invited to speak at a number of conferences throughout the world.

To prevent children turning to drugs and gang culture, Heather began a sports project that now has more than a 100 junior soccer teams, with regular coaching sessions when finances permit.

In the 2000, the project relocated to Cato Ridge outside Durban where there are now some 90+ children living with the Reynolds, supported through the assistance of a care-givers and volunteers. Their home is a place for the children to receive schooling and learn basic craft skills whilst being cared for in small unit foster families.

For a few, it is a place to die in dignity; held, cared for, sung over and loved, rather than be left to die abandoned.

Volunteers have recently built a new playground from local materials and a hospice was launched to provide better medical care for the growing number dying children. Current plans include the construction and maintenance
of a Memorial Garden.

Volunteers go out each week to provide basic food supplies to hundreds of families in a local area known as The Valley of a Thousand Hills. In many cases, grandparents often ill and infirm themselves, are left responsible for the offspring of their own deceased children, and as most work during the day, the youngest children are vulnerable to the threat of rape and violence.

Heather continues to wholly dedicate her life to the care of these children, alleviating in whatever way she can the suffering and devastation of a disease that has threatened to destroy the future of an entire nation of young people.

“Heather Reynolds has single-handedly got together a dedicated team, got an orphanage going and helped countless families. She is highly respected in South Africa and I admire her and her work more than I can say”

Susan Pilkington, God’s Golden Acre supporter

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