On the 12th and 13th of February Vunani financial literacy took place in Villiersdorp community, People are so very excited when Avocado always reminding them of how to handle and prepare for their financial issues, and it also give our Youth a great opportunity to handle their own lifestyle, some they also asking why are we not doing these trainings in the EC rural areas it could be a very good session for our parents, brothers and sisters.

Reporting on the hyprop training program financial literacy I conducted a four day training to the community of nelmaphias pretoria. The community loved and welcomed the workshop. Many people loved all modules and the where discussions about Budget, saving and Debt management On the last day we had a lot of turn up

Community building is all about bringing people together and creating a sense of belonging. This can be done in various ways, but the most common methods include organizing events, initiating joint projects, networking, and supporting each other. Building a strong community can have many benefits. During our training season we met Patricia Mamatela 45 years of age, a single mother of three children. She is a Pastor and a community leader in the Village called Maboloka, few Kilometers outside Brits town in the Northwest Province of RSA. She invited all unemployed young and old people to come and attend the financial skills and financial knowledge training. We aimed at doing only two Modules with them but because of their interest and enthusiasm we did four Modules with them. We covered Budgeting and Saving & investing just to mention a few. After the training Patricia started a Fast-Food outlet just outside the church premises and she employed 3 young people from the community. She says the motivation came from the Financial Skills training we had at her village. We encouraged them to start where they are, with what they have and what they can! and the results are amazing. Patricia said “Your training added value to our dreams and fueled the possibility of making it happen, Thank you. Thank you, Avocado Vision and Sanlam, for empowering us to empower others. Indeed, we are building RSA one community at a time. Without you, we would not be able to have the impact we do on our communities and the world – thank you! Your support and partnership inspire us every day!

Sanlam MM was held in different areas of Villiersdorp Moreson farm, Highnoon farm and Right to Care health Care givers, it was very challenging to go to the Farms due to the floods we had in our town, especially the time to re-do the register, it took long time to received them back, but our trainings were successfully and there was a request from Right to Care, they want to do Module 13 Funeral, their recently challenge at their department, I promise to talk to one of our projects managers for next year, the training came on the right time as we are facing the festive time, where our people have been living in the Farms, everything went up due to our economy, loadsheding retrenchments etc, it is not good to see people living in the Farms with no work some they are chased out of the Farms which is not fair, never the less our people they need Awareness so to understand what they are facing in their country. The training went very well especially to the elderly people the really enjoy and they learn a lot. Thank you Avocado, SANLAM what you doing to our people means a lot,keep doing doing good, and have a fabulous festive 🙏💞

Vunani Module 2 was held in ASHTON, it was not the easy day but successful,our challenge was the vanue,but we managed to do it outside, people were very excited after a longe not doing trainings in ASHTON,never the less the training was useful since we had a challenge of loadsheding, closing down of the companies, that brings porvert to. the communities, the solution was to do things like our parents, start food gardening that can save those in need etc.

Training SEF program to a group of ECD practitioners in Pretoria Mamelody/ Nelmaphius. Introducing Give yourself a Job to a group of ECD practitioners it qas a great experience, many of the participants had an opportunity give them an opportunity to explore their skills and Talents. We looked at myths which many knows, we spoke about each one's experience in starting and running their business, running start ups. Many of the participants enjoyed the training and wanted more of the trainings which relate to financial literacy. The opportunity of understanding inputs, outputs, customers, and suppliers in their business velue chain was so very interesting.

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.

I had good opportunity to incouter with a group of learners who are employed in project and where happy because it was follow up from the training they did for charcoal production. Boosting income training is relevant for most of them to start something before and after the project end which is business. The training was an eye opener for those take things for granted and never think a project has it's end is not for ever. Many of them concared with the content of the to assist with skills in boosting income and to start business this advocated by comments on post evaluation of the training. All four groups behaved well share their experiences and few suggested we add budgets in this training but indicated is another module. I realise some are selling fire hood which informal but this training some promise to start formal charcoal business and put it on the market and register with relevant authorities. That also need follow up including training taxes because is concern. Participants were happy and gave respect to avocado vision to come up and create session like this to enlighten their and knowledge to boost life skills.