Stories
As South Africans, our experience with money is probably as diverse as our population. There are significant gaps in understanding basic financial concepts. Hollard empower people to live with confidence, go after their goals and believe they can build a better life. For example, how can you save for retirement properly, if you don’t know how much you need? Hollards programme helps with Freeing up disposable income to save and invest for short-, medium- and long-term goals. Starting small, with the creation of an emergency fund, for example, can minimise one’s risk of future debt and help lead to long-term financial freedom. We as facilitators we encourage participants to take control and personal responsibility for upskilling yourself on the basic principles of finances. This includes self-reading, research and asking questions. We hope to touch more lives with this programme but we know as well the difficulties of people committing and actually coming to this training opportunities is a struggle. But we work with those who have the boldness to attend and hope to encourage the other to take up this opportunity.
Financial literacy changes people’s life all the time I feel privileged to be part of this life changing programme Participants from different sessions always show appreciation for this programme that help them to curse the circle of poverty in their lives
The session went well. The candidates were a mix of youths and older people but there was no intomation of anyone. Older people shared their experience in particular one lady who is a qualied nurse. She worked on contract for one private clinic and when covid 19 started she was rentrenched. She shared how with proper financial goals she managed to start a small business by saving small amounts. The group was very energetic.
Hollard Streetwise Finance- The training took place since October 2021. Most of my trainings took place in Khayelitsha township in Cape Town. Trainings were so inspiring and informative. Most of my participants are unemployed but these training prepared them in case they get employment they are able to manage their finances. All of these sessions were well organized and they were organized by community leaders. Community leaders appreciated these trainings and they attended as well. The training was an eye-opener to the participants especially setting saving goals. They were so keen to attend more trainings around this subject. They were able to identify insurance products they need, according to their livelihoods. After the training they questioned more about retirement. The only challenge is that some participants don't have cellphone so they struggle to do calculations, I would like to recommend calculators for participants. Other than that most of the trainings went smooth.
Apologies for not sending review of my session, I concentrated on the report. ( 1.aha moments: all participants showed hunger to know more about insurance as a topic that hits home.Normal expectation from young group of participants is that after first break some will not return but all of them returned showing keen interest in the course particularly activities. 2. Not so great moment: some participants raised issues that were real to them and very touchy, such as " how do you expect them to budget when they are not working. They were even asking if certificate they are going to receive have any value to their CV's". There was energetic engagement from all participants and non of them felt left out. 3. Overall review: The session went very well, started my session with 24 participants and closed with 24 which gives me 100% retention of participants.
This was an interesting Green Business Mentorship session where the upcoming charcoal producers were picked their minds on charcoal production equipment just to find out if they're aware of what is expected and to find out if they've been working on preparations before they start, I then took the producers to imaginery charcoal production site set up for example the terrain , site assessment , kiln arrangement , biomass assessment and arrangement . The existing charcoal producers shared their struggles and successes with other producers . Participants seeme to be more interested on profit without actually looking at expenses you encure during production which I shared some with them .Most interesting was the fact that most of the producers have the clearing agreements .
Hollard training was a success , it was fulfilling for me to get a chance to be part of youth empowerment for the new employed youth under Lima , this youth is excited that for the first time in their lives they'll get a wages so Hollard financial literacy came right in time , it was the first time that I get challenged on banking , the participants were strongly opposing the banking as they said the valued way of keeping your money is keeping it at home as you don't pay extra charges and there was a debate on the banking module and needs & wants but finally we all agreed that banking is a good choice if you know all the details and services offered by the bank. On budgeting module I was suprised by most participants who were not comfortable on talking about their finances as they were taught at home that finances are a secret but after explaining to them that no one will share their budgets and it won't be a group activity everybody was comfortable but at the end of the day budgeting module was the most praised and loved module .
Sanlam Training went extremely well, as most of the participants were struggling to keep up to their Budget, having complication checking their credit profile, What kind of Insurance do they need and even how their beliefs and culture affects their finances. We had a great even other teams are interested in attending the Modules before the Festive Season.
