Stories
The session went extremely well, they shared how credit has impacted their lives especially when it comes to their earnings. They also requested that we do sessions quarterly for all the municipal employees because of a number of garnishes, administration, judgements and debt counseling.
I had the privilege to conduct the Coronation CFE with Young Center in Kutloanong were the most discussed topic was on their financial instability and the know how of improving their environmental and financial challenges.
Avocado Vision in partnership with Coronation I successfully upskilled 192 participants for financial life skills training program working with local stakeholders. The word budget it's familiar to many but their understand it's not accurate, Ayanda in explaining budget " budget it's when you put money aside to meet the target you Stated for a specific expenses". Some Who attended the session get to understand that budget " It's the plan of the money earned including your expenses and savings", it was a active youth showing enthusiasm towards the program. Some attended modules like: Money safety- Saving and investing, Scams and fraud, Thinking about retirement, my money and the text man and money and believe most of the information was new to many participants. Money and believe turned to debate because of different views in individuals and I concluded by saying " I know we have different believe based on Cultural believe and religious but it is very important to us Money wisely start with you needs, savings then wants. Don't be influenced by your cultural beliefs or religious to spend everything you work hard for and remain with nothing at hand"
0n 16 April 2025 i conducted a session on Money Fo Sho with the CWP in Eldorado park. It was great to see the young and old joined together and thirsty to learn more about managing their finance. most participants after the session commented on how grateful they are to have learned the importance of budgeting and writing their goals down and celebrate every mile stone as they achieve them.The older generation commented on how they wished they had learnt more about keeping the credit report good by not over buying stuff they dont neeed.they cannot wait for more training to come back in Eldos
touching story of twins and how they want to open an NPO to assist young entrepreneurs in dealing with their debts and make good financial decision unlike them.
Training went extremely well and a lot was discussed on budgeting, savings and investments, but the most critical part was on Credit as the 2 twins Gracious and Gladys Mlambo shared their stories. How has credit impacted their lives due to them relocating to Joburg and had no choice but to buy furniture, clothing and rental on credit, but soon realise that their earnings were not enough to cover their debts and they lost their jobs during covid that made it worse. they are now owing closed to R100 000.00 on credit that they can't repay as they're currently unemployed and live on their parents grants.
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.
