Stories
Ruzanne van Beulen is a woman that is suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis. She has been released from work and is now receiving pension. She has a son on university that started his studies at the beginning of the year. She has attended the Money fo' Sho training on 14 April 2025 and has found tremendous assistance especially when it comes to budgeting and cutting costs in order to prevent expenses from being more than her income. This is assisted by prioritizing needs above wants. Please herewith find her comments in Afrikaans.
Had the opportunity to train community in Clarens on the 10th of April and the modules covered were buying big ticket items and money and beliefs, as we shared understanding on bigger items they classified cars and houses therefore trying to figure out their preferences we have noted down that most of our youth would buy cars for social standing and fitting in without taking into consideration factors like 1. the affordability of instalments 2. maintenance 3. Fuel cost and lastly the availability of their parts therefore we began breaking down the process of qualifying for a car in fact as determining one to be approved then compared with the breakdown of the budget to determine if one can really afford and the outcome was qualifying does not mean affordability. We then discussed the aspects to note down when you have decided to purchase a car basically explained the option of taking car finance or taking a loan to buy the car cash from dealership if only you are not buying the car cash from your own savings or pocket. same applies to buying a house you either take a personal loan or a home loan which is a bond then the relationship between the two is paying their car or a house with fixed or variable installment, residual psyment inclusive of its advantages and disadvantages explained we then did the calculations of purchasing a house on a 250 000 cost price house on a personal loan on 20% interest rate for five years and the breakdown of a 250,000 range house on home loan on 8% interest rate for 20 years and our findings were one has high monthly installment with lower total amount while the other has lower monthly installment with high total amount and lastly how one can decide to pay the same amount of personal to homeloan and the outcome was period of payment is even shorter. In addition the money and beliefs session was more of a conversation were participants shared their practises and the rituals they know of concerning the money. Lastly it is safe to say the individual said at the end of the session they rather prefer buying big ticket items for mobility and employment, career aspirations as well as considering the economic factors.
On 11 April 2025 I conducted a Money FO Sho session, the participants were actually a support group of gender based violence created recently in the community, the ladies agreed that some of the topics handled were part and parcel contributors to situations they encountered in their relationships, especially when it came to the needs and wants and the lengths they have to go to ensure that those are met, they were immensely inspired to know that they can restructure their finances by themselves without relying on compromising measures.
Moretele Local Municipality is located in an area called Moretele, which is situated far north of Pretoria in the North West province. The municipality was established in 2000 and covers an area of 1 369km2. It is located strategically to join four provinces, namely North West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo. Moretele is the Setswana name for a river that runs through the area, namely Noka ya Moretele (the Moretele River). The Municipality comprises 26 wards, which are made up of 74 villages and plots. Most villages are ruled by 4 traditional leaders(Dikgosi) who are recognized by law and who all represent their respective tribes/communities in council. In 2024 during one of the Avocado worksite training I met a young lady by the name of Amogelang who was deeply impacted by the Money Fo Sho program, after the training she approached me and made a plead for me to come to her village and municipality in 2025 of which I agreed and that’s how I was introduced to Moretele Local Municipality. Coronation Financial Literacy Training Program took place in 3 Villages over a period of 10 Days in March 2025 covering 9 modules in Total. 1. Village 1- Lebotloane: Here in Lebotloane 5 days were spend impacting young entrepreneurs with boosting your income, credit management and funerals and finances amongst others. The Community was excited to learn about how to leverage their ideas and turning them into business and moreover learn about dealing with money theft like increasing debt. One person added that Borrowing should only be used for getting into profitability, anything else is money slavery. 2. Village 2 – Dikebu: Budgeting skills and Planning for emergencies is one of the great modules used to help our people prepare for the unfortunate. Dikebu youth benefitted immensely from such relevant skills. 3. Village 3 – Ga Motla: The community although struggling to put together the training on the final day in Moretele, the ward councilor intervened and assisted in gathering an enthusiastic crowd that learned very much from modules such as business risks and managing taxation. One of the leaders bemoaned the fact that South africa is one of those heavily taxed nations and lauded the fact that he did not know of the various taxes that exists. The villages of Moretele and many in S A are buzzing with a lot of unemployed youth. Many of our youth are very hopeless as a result but thankfully the Avocado vision platform and fimacial literacy are bringing hope to these communities. It was truly wonderful to have Coronation, Avocado and Amogelang as Partners in Changing the negative narrative within our rural communities.
Bateleur Capital Money FO'SHo was held in Villiersdorp community it was great and experienced to train young people and adults in one room, it has made me to do it again and again due to their financial challenges,,the activities has thought them how to keep safe and how to take care of their assets due to what is happening to our country. After the training I interviewed one of the participants a young lady, she said she is very happy to have this opportunity, she didn't want to attend the training because when someone told her is about money then she came and listened. She said she was not there to stay because of the bad experience she has from where she was working, she was involved in an accident at work, she never received anything because of Lack of information, after her accident from work they apply for Sassa disability grant and RAF, Sassa is the only money she received at the moment, she said after we did Accident session that is when she understands that the company owe her a lot of money from this month she is going to start the journey, especially now she knows how to do the Claims and where to go if they are I denial of paying back all he monies, she said she gain a lot of experience although she was not there to stay, she is so grateful to have this training and ship is willing to introduce this training to others.
Training took place on the week of the 7th to the 11 of April. The below of is the story of Nolwazi one of the disabled attendees at one of the sessions in Limpopo: I went to Tertiary and I got my amount from NSFAS of R17000.I went on to blow the amount as I have never gotten such a huge figure in my life and stopped going to school.I wish I had this training before.
Bateleur Capital and Coronation MM was held in Villiersdorp community, it was such a great opportunity for the adult and the Youth, They shared a lot of experience and the knowledge. Their challenges is:The people with bad priorities, people who don't understand what is important in their savings. No plans, people must learn how to budget, make savings goals, set up systems that will help them to succeed, and saving for rainy days when cost of living goes up. As I kept on doing these trainings I want to see whatever they earn they must not use more than one third at least they must save one third it gives you resilience, optionality, flexibility if the boss might be very difficult you can save yourself, as we are living in the Farms, I can see the changes in our communities, the way they do things and the great way they planing for their future.
The training took place at AGF Nkowankowa.We had a 64 year old Man who was overjoyed to be part of the session as he did not have any higher training and felt this would help him in terms of his will as he stated he was not aware of some of the things he needed to sort out for. He even committed to visiting the bank the following Monday to fix those.
On 27 March 2025 I conducted a session on Money Fo Sho for an NGO called Bridges of hope. It was so great to see young people interacting with each other. Young people were looking forward to know methods of managing their finances. After the session we interview one of the participants, she said this was a great opportunity and its a life time experience that one has to apply. She said as young people they don't set goals hence the activity was a bit challenging because it needed them to think critically, and it was helpful to her. She also said this training gave her an insight of how important it is to keep her credit record good in order to be able to get assets and build a better future. She also said as young people they do not care about emergency fund for them is to "Blew"all the money and wait for another pay day of borrow somewhere e.g from Mashonisa. She said she wish this kind of training can spread all around the country.
Davidene Saulse is a young, teenage lady that attended the Money for Sho" session on 31 march 2025. She fully participated in all the activities and was attentive to the information shared. She indicated that the session has taught her a lot of how to wisely work with her money, especially to save for future studies.
