Micro-business & Entrepreneur Activation - Phetoho

Future Families supports the psycho-social well-being of nearly 10,000 orphans and vulnerable children in Tshwane, South Africa. Through a community mobilisation model it promotes safer families and communities and builds knowledge, skills and capabilities that impact on poverty, health, education, and women’s empowerment.

As part of a social enterprise strategy to move away from a dependency on funding from donors Future Families has recently begun a number of profit-making activities to sustain the future of its social purpose and impact. One of these is a community entrepreneur activation programme - the project that YOU have supported us to get off the ground.

The business model uses Future Families' impressive community reach and training expertise. It sources high quality second hand clothing in 20kg ‘bales’ from another local social enterprise, Clothes to Cash Exchange, and sells these at below-market prices to trained groups of women.

The idea is to activate community entrepreneur potential through micro-business, for social and financial benefits, for vulnerable families in communities where education levels are low and unemployment is high. 

Let me remind you why this is a big issue: There are 4,9 million unemployed people in SA (Stats SA Statistical Releases P0211 and P0211.4.2). A shocking 89% of these have no work experience.

I’m willing to bet that all of you (a) have education and work experience behind you, and (b) feel empathy for those in the world who may never have had this opportunity.

Martha has been a client of Future Families for several years, attending a weekly HIV support group at the community office in Mamelodi township. Last September she joined a business skills training session to learn about starting a clothing micro-business.

Clothes are a highly desirable commodity and daily need. But the cost of travel to malls and commercial retail prices are prohibitive to community members who exist in a very hand to mouth living setup. Clothes are also declared a universal human right:

Article 25(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

And I’m sure you would all agree that they are vital to our dignity and individuality as human beings.

I recently visited Martha and her peers to find out how they are putting their micro-business training into practice. She was keen to tell me how her business is going, several months down the line, and I was impressed by what I saw.

Together with three friends who also attended the training – Julia, Anna and Linah – she has been buying her clothing stock from the Future Families community office in Mamelodi. Buying in bulk, at below market prices, Martha’s able to sell the clothing to customers in her community at a mark-up to create an income. She has been learning her own sales techniques and business strategies by experimenting and seeing what works.

This scheme is creating positive effects at every level of the value chain:

• It builds skills and economic capacity in the community entrepreneurs;
• It introduces an income stream (separate to restricted donor funds) so that Future Families can continue their work;
• It supports the social purpose impact of Clothes to Cash Exchange, through the collaborative business relationship;
• And for the end users –  the ultimate customers – it’s an affordable way to clothe themselves and their families.

With a proud and unforgettable smile Martha told me that she and her family can now eat before they sleep because of the income that her clothing micro-business is generating. This simple change in her life means she can put something on the dinner table for her family, and feel proud, and at the same time be investing in her own development and experience.

And this sums up what I love most about this initiative, which also inspired the title of this report… Clothes = Dignity.