Heartlines was founded in 2002 by Dr Garth Japhet, a medical doctor driven by a passion to transform behaviour through storytelling. Working in Alexandra during apartheid South Africa, Garth realised that treating symptoms would never truly improve the health and quality of life of his patients. 

As the Centre for Values Promotion, their vision is to be the voice of values in South Africa, and the centre for engaging values-based content. One of early slogans sums it up: “We mobilise people to do what’s right in order to fix what’s wrong.”