Empower Women through the Self Help Group Approach

When we started Self Help Groups in 2012, people saved R2 per week. Now most groups are saving R5 per person per week. They are still amazed by what they are able to do with this weekly saving. Most members have improved their life-style in some way. Many have built rooms onto their houses, put up water tanks, tiled floors, put burglar guards onto their houses, and bought furniture such as fridges and cupboards. This has made life easier or more pleasant for the entire family and the more important result is that the woman has gained some status in her family and/or community.

It is really important for each member to start a small business by herself, or with a friend or two in order to generate income. Experience has taught us that very few group businesses are successful or sustainable. The exception to this seems to be group vegetable gardens where members either supply a school feeding scheme with vegetables or sell vegetables in the community. Another group business which has been successful, is when the group buys chairs and hires them out for funerals or parties and community events. Each member keeps a few chairs at home and takes them to the place where they are needed each time.  A lot of our small businesses involve people making and selling food, household items such as floor polish and fabric softener, sewing or beadwork. Others buy items such as second-hand clothes and sell them, while some also buy "tuckshop" food and sell it at local schools at break time. Usually people need to be in a group for 6 months to a year before they start thinking about a business. In reality, unless the group member has been able to start a small business of some kind, she is only shuffling her money around. She borrows from the group, and repays when she gets her grant. To be able to make real improvements to life-style, and not just pay for groceries and airtime, she needs to generate income.

At the last count, we had 61 individual businesses and 3 group businesses in our SHG programme. I include some photos of individual businesses below. Thusanang's Community Facilitators are really important in motivating and helping indivdual members of the Self Help Groups and your donations pay some of their stipends. Thank you very much.

Links:

• Help Rural Women Help Themselves

In my last report I mentioned that South Africa had officially exited the third wave of Covid, and that we were planning our year-end functions again. Then (and now), we still had to be careful, limit numbers at gatherings and try to meet outdoors if at all possible. With this in mind we decided to divide our year-end function for SHG members into 2 events, and to hold them under a stretch tent in the courtyard outside our hall at Thusanang. These were very successful. Our members said they felt happier talking to one another in a smaller meeting, and it gave more people an opportunity to share their experiences.Many ladies eagerly used this opportunity to share with others how much being able to improve their standard of living meant to them. They were amazed how a small saving each week could make a big change later. What was particularly heart-warming was to hear how they experienced gaining new respect from their husbands and neighbours because of what they were able to contribute to the family.

Our guest speaker this time was Bronwyn Carter, an Occupational Therapist who had been helping Thusanang wherever possible while her husband was doing community service near Tzaneen. She spoke about the development of the child, and special needs which may occur, and how to look out for signs of special needs in the developing child. Sadly for us, Bronwyn and Ryan have now left South Africa and are living in Australia. We wish them all the best in this exciting new stage of their lives. Our Community Facilitators then enacted a short play about how to (and how not to) speak to one another in SHG meetings. The audience really enjoyed the comedy in this and were often in fits of laughter.

All our CFs are trying to start new groups in their respective areas so that more women can benefit from being members of an SHG. This requires getting permission from the induna to work in his/her area, door to door visiting to find members of similar economic backgrounds, community mapping so all members know where their fellow group members live, and training in the different SHG concepts. This has been particularly successful in the new area, Bolubedu, where we started the SHG programme last year. We now have 9 groups there and the goal is to start 2 new groups each month this year so that we have 25 groups there by the end on 2022. The most significant way to improve one's standard of living is actually to start a small business. The challenges of what will be most successful, how to run the business and where to market one's products remain important challenges and we aim to help group members with these challenges this year.