I heard the most amazing story from one of our savings coordinator, which I immediately wanted to share with you.  Stories like these remind me of why I went back to school so I could devote my life to serving the 'vulnerable'

The fourteen women of the Vukuzenzele self help / savings group pooled their individual savings together to start a group business venture. They collectively borrowed R300 to start an egg selling business. With the initial group savings they purchased 18 trays of eggs and distributed among the women in the group to sell. Which they were able to sell for R600! From the sales, they were able to pay back the R300 loan and still have R300 remaining to invest back into the business. There plan is to buy another 18 trays of eggs, sell the eggs, double their purchase capacity, and go from there.

The recent success of the group is even more encouraging given that when the group first launched, one of the members borrowed from the group and then disappeared with the money. Despite that setback, they resolved to continue with the group but only allow loans to be taken against the group for group ventures instead of allowing individuals to loans from other members of the group. Through Zimele's capacity building workshops the group members were able to regain their trust with each other and get to their current place.

Audrey Matimelo, Manager of Social Development