Stories
On the 1st to the 3rd November 2023 I had the privilege to train individuals from both rural and urban area of Mangaung Municipality. Participants were trained on money modular 1-8. When the participants saw the guide of module 7 the topic "Ageing Grace", they thought the module was for old people but a twist turn was, they then realised that if you are a younger individual, retirement may seem years away so it is also one of the best goals to start saving for, because the earlier you start, the more you’ll have compounded down the line. It was a great pleasure to hear from one of the participants stating that "they have successfully started a small business because of the help our trainings".She started a night care or babysitting kids over the weekend, she said she saw a potential since many day care in our area closes on Friday and on weekends many parents struggle with who or where they can take their children to.That on its own changed the mood in the room the participants were eager to learn more and ready to unleash their talents, skills and potentials to make money out of them. Thank you Avocado Vision and Sanlam for assisting us in making an impact in our communities.
I had an opportunity to train few groups of CWP workers at Mogalakwena district in Limpopo. It was worksite sessions sponsored by Sanlam. The groups were very much ready for the training and they took it very serious, they were combination of youth and older people, they liked module 4 a lot saying that it opened their eyes about credit. Scam and fraud was the module that participation was high as most of them wanted to share their experiences concerning scam,:and others were listening showing expression on their faces that they want to capture every information that was offered, for me i was very happy when they thank me and ask that I should come with more modules, cos they need info like that to mamage their finances better.
I had the opportunity to train with the CWP group one from Clarens and the following modules were covered My Budget, saving and investing, money safety and managing debt. The group is part of the community driven government program to provide a job safety net for unemployed people of working age however in the group there are still elders who are pensioners working under the programme to extend their income. General challenges noted during the sessions were their monthly income is roughly R960 therefore, we stayed a little longer on the topic MY BUDGET trying to medge between their income and expenses as most of them they are only depended on their salaries and grants (child grants and/or pensioners grant and about 3 disability grant). The expenses are more higher than their income Moreover it is not easy to have savings and investment accounts and this situation sometimes forces them to poorly manage their debts by default to arrears due to low or no payments. At the same time we discussed how one can balance between money coming in and money going out by cutting on expenses and managing debts by prioritising needs before wants, monitoring budget plan before receiving and after receiving money. Again the highlight was starting to save the little that is spared slowly considering the account with high interest rate and correct type of interest rate, furthermore keeping up to date with those small accounts to grow their credit score. In conclusion we briefed since their working schedule is 8 a month - 2 days a week, individuals of working age can find another temporary jobs for the 3 remaining days a week while others suggested a smaller business on side to add on their income list and lastly participants were thankful that they now know it's not about huge amount of money, any amount is manageable,.going forward they will do better.
This week I trained in Msinga/Tugela Ferry and Nquthu Although there were hiccups here and there,the week was great.The group in Nquthu,there were participants who could not read nor write,at first I got very frustrated because I couldn't understand how they are running businesses,but the highlight was how they assisted each other,reading and writing for each other,the patience and love they had for each other,I learnt a lot from them,sometimes we take advantage of things that to some people are a treasure to.The ability to read and write,hold a pen etc.SEF project
I conducted a training to the group of physically impaired ladies who are on an ECD Learnership Program. The Sanlam MM training took place at the ELET-Portshepstone site in October 2023. Learners were trained on Module 1,2,3,4,5,6,9&10. It was the most exciting and fruitful training with most outstanding learner participation I have ever had in any Financial Education program. At the beginning I was not comfortable because most learners had chronic sicknesses and there was always a Social Worker and an assistant in class incase of any emergencies during the lesson. What was noticeable is that the majority of the learners were very intelligent and came up with the best ideas in all the topics we discussed. I was so touched by the discussion on the goal setting where the learners were so eager to share their short, medium and long term goals and I was very impressed by the fact that their physical state was not a barrier to them achieving their life goals and was so amazed by the optimism they had despite their impairment, they rose above that and were very grateful for the knowledge on good saving methods and how they can manage risk to minimise using their savings. The other interesting discussion was a story shared by one learner on the funeral cover claim which had an exclusion that could have resulted in the family members's loss but they fought with the insurer till they were paid 10% of their insured amounts, so that was an eye opener to all, to be aware of such information when they take funeral policies as not everyone will have the strength to fight and win the battle as shared by their peer. After this exciting session, I feel that we should include more participants with disabilities in the future as they are normal mentally and should not be discriminated. They need the financial education just like any other person and their physical state make them more stronger and eager to excel in life.
The Ulundi municipality workers had an opportunity to express their financial situation that includes challenges during the worksite Financial life skills training. Avocado Vision in partnership with sunlam make this training possible. My observations many patients raised concern of earning less ,but not well skilled about managing their current income. They have managed to learn more about budgeting digging deeper to manage their income before. Some participants speak out that if they where thought early about budget a lot was going to achieved in their lives. They have also learned more about different types of savings method where they can keep their money safety and also earn interest. The was a positive response towards the serving method session, some of the information where new to most participants even though they show positive response and interest in the saving method. Mr Nkosi said this must a continuous session also to their children so that they must not make same mistake they did as parents.
