Stories
It's always been great pleasure to train rural people as watching dynamics change , training Hollard has given me an opportunity to spend 6 hours a day with people employed on 1 month or more contracts and also the internship. In most cases these people they don't refer to these contracts as employement and money earn through these is not regarded as sustainable income , it was satisfying to watch the same people referring to their earnings as savings and investments through out these trainings . Some have started saving for the equipment to take internship training to business level . My most amazing moment was trainings in Bizana - Baleni village where these youth have always thought the Baleni life is not cool but after the training they all agreed they can continue live this life and save more . I've also learned 1or 2 things that I can change in my daily life and start saving money. Thank you Avocado Vision and Hollard for making these trainings possible
One of the most challenging yet rewarding sessions I have ever had the honour of training. I had a session in Lugelweni A/A where I was training People Living with Disabilities, most of whom are illiterate. The motivating factor for me to have this session inspite of the challenges that I anticipated was that they earn Disability grants and most of the time they do not know how their monies are handled by their family members and all of them have no savings yet they have families that they are looking after with their income. There were many challenges during the session as some of them had to wait for their assistants to explain things (deaf and blind) but I was amazed by their patience and eagerness, they were very interested in understanding more about savings as well as insurance. One of them shared that they had found out a few years ago that they were insured by various neighbors who wanted to benefit from their death and when the neighbors had a disagreement, the truth was then revealed and luckily Traditional Authority Council intervened. This made me realize that these people really need information yet we have never given them a thought as a target market for this programme, considering that some of them are born with disabilities and therefore earn an income from an early age. I aim to consult with Forum that looks after this group of people so that within each target that we get for trainings, I can set aside a few sessions for them.
from 4th feb to 07 feb 2021 i had five sessions for hollard streetwise finance online course. participates were very excited about the course and the feedback was great. they said it was an eye opener . they now going to budget their money wisely and also save for rainy days. they even referred some of their friends to also complete the the course.
In the Month of January and February 2020, I conducted couple of trainings in the following communities: EYardini, EThembeni,Kosovo, Winnie Madikizela, Harare, and HeinzPark. These communites appreciated the training as it was their first time to be exposed on such information. In Some communities I had to train 3 groups because community leaders felt that this training is needed in these communities. These trainings made a huge impact in these communities. The forum also requested more of these trainings.
From 26/01/2021 I started training for interns and sme's for Lima , CSA and Amampondo Ecochamps based in the remote rural areas of the Eastern Cape . Mostly we were training youth who are employed for the first time with a 1 year contract so financial literacy training was critical for them as it'll enable them to take wise financial decisions for the future. As rural people we don't often prioritize Saving, Insurance , planning for needs and wants and retirement, we always associate retirement products with wealthy people and individuals earning huge sums of money , but after these trainings they're wise enough . Lima group are the sme's supporters and funded by Lima but can't take care of their personal finances how can they run businesses . Overall outcome was these individuals can now spread the word to their communities after doing so we will have african community with respect and love for money .
Also during January I trained community members of Steytlerville and Willowmore in Hollard Streetwise finance, the community members expressed their gratitude for the training and appreciated the role Hollard and Avocado have played in bringing the training to Steytlerville. They were quite interested in the firs module regarding Needs vs Wants and budgeting as some have worked before or are working or receiving grant but just couldn't use their monies efficiently and effectively leading to over indebtedness and stress and anxiety hopefully they will implement measures to change their ways. Also the insurance module as many had a lot of funeral covers but only funeral cover. Mr. Sam Blaauw share his story where he worked and did business to where he had land, cattle, house and belongigs of about 2 million rands in the year 2002 and declined manyvadvices to take out insurance for his belongings and one day in 2004 he lost everything through fire and it took him 7 years to recover emotionally but still scared and could never recover financially and he shared his story so as to advise young people to look after themselves and belongings and never to undermine the importance of insurance. So as much as at times we know life teaches us otherwise, hence I believe real life experience are major contributors when we train. I also had an assessor from Hollard for 4 days.
During january 2021 I trained community members of Steytlerville in Hollard Streetwise finance. The groups included the newly contrated teacher assistants. They appreciated the training and enjoyed it very much as some are first time earners and were never exposed to financial literacy, as one Mr. Cross put it he was about to spend all of his money knowing that the next paycheck is coming, but now that he has attended the training he will better plan the use of his money and try and save for when there is no contract and for other things too. It was very interactive sessions and the participants were open to tell their experiences. They wished me to thank Hollard for bringing the training to the rural area of Steytlerville and Avocado Vision for enabling the training to be facilitated in their area and they wished for more trainings to come to them.
On 21/12/2020 - 23/12/2020 we empowered communities of Siyangena infomal settlement as well Winnie Madikizela informal settlement. All three sessions were successful and productive. The community members appreciated the training and they said they are looking forward for more trainings like these. I must commend the community leaders for organising the venues and the participants. An assessor from Hollard was present too. "These Financial literacy training are very helpful to our communitues, we learn lot of new methods on how to manage money" one of the community member Thandokazi said. They also said they would appreciate if there can be follow up programs just to check how they are doing with their finances.
Sanlam MM training had a huge impact at Makgobistad / Phitsane Village.... It was for the first time people had such training and they were so happy and asked that i should come back with more trainings in future.. I so wish to get back to them with more workshops in future. I am very grateful to Avocado Vision and Sanlam for giving me this opportunity to impact peoples lives positively..
