Mildred (the director of the community based organization, iThembalethu) wanted to hear about my trip to the USA. I showed her photos and told her how beautiful New York is and about all the wonderful people I’ve met. I explained to her the function of ZIMELE USA and the highly committed volunteers who so willingly offer their service. She sends her love and can’t wait to see you all next year!

On Tuesday I went to Inchanga to spend time with Ntombi, the Savings Coordinator, and her Community Volunteers, Buyi and Buhle. These ladies are on target with the forming of new savings groups (30 for the year) and needs to focus now on quality training. They are so fired up that they had scheduled training sessions seven days of the week which I had to put an end to.

We visited the crafters group in Inchanga, who are now part of the savings programme. Not everybody was at the savings meeting and I soon discover there was something wrong with the composition of the group. Some of the people who were allocated to the group were not crafters and one of the important aspects affecting the success of this program was that everyone in the group needs to be of the same social/economical standing. In this case, the crafters have the potential to earn more and therefore save larger amounts, which will then effect negatively on the not-crafters. I facilitated a discussion and the group suggested that non-crafters will be linked to new saving groups and other potential crafters join their group.