Physical Health South Africa Project #10010

Lifeskills for 2,587 Children in South Africa

by Keep The Dream196

Lifeskills for 2,587 Children in South Africa

Project Report | Apr 15, 2025
SHG Quarterly update 2025!

By Louise | Managing Director

Annah standing in front of her one bedroom house.

I want to share about how well our Self Help Group is growing. It is wonderful to be a part of something which is so transformative and is really making grassroots changes. Imagine, no longer any fights over money. Poverty, as you know is one of the biggest stressors in relationships. Not having enough money for food, for the basics is traumatic and so stressful to individuals, adults and families. The SHG program is changing this.

Currently, today, I have to say today, because tomorrow there will be changes, that is how fast this project is growing, we have 106 SHG’s. What an amazing achievement for the team responsible. That is just incredible. That means you are helping to support 1,865 women and 5,080 children in their battle against poverty, today. The best part is, once they have learnt the skills, changed their focus, enabled themselves, they will now and forever be their own answer to their own financial issues. They will no longer need to rely on handouts.

YES I LOVE THIS PROGRAM.

Hear from Annah below about the impact of the program.

Thank you for being a part of the transformation we are seeing first hand.

Blessings

Louise

Annah is a 32-year-old woman from Tshwaranang Self-Help Group (SHG). She is a single mother caring for her three children, two boys aged 12 and 10, and a girl aged 5. Annah and her children live in a one-room house, which they have divided using a curtain to create separate spaces. After her mother passed away, Annah moved to Burgersdorp with the father of her children. However, after the birth of their third child, he chose to leave her for another woman.

Annah explained that life was difficult before she joined her SHG. She was unemployed and relied solely on the Child Support Grant. Unfortunately, she did not receive any of that money because a loan shark had taken her ID and SASSA card as collateral. Deep in debt, there were times when her children went to bed hungry, often eating only a slice of bread with water. It broke her heart to see her children struggling because no parent wants to witness such hardship.

In June 2023, Annah joined Tshwaranang SHG. Her first loan was for R40, which she used to buy bread and tomatoes to prepare meals for her children. To earn extra money and repay her loan, she started doing odd jobs for people in the community, such as cleaning yards and washing laundry. By July 2024, as the SHG group's capital grew, she decided to take out another loan for R1500. This loan allowed her to settle her R1000 debt with the loan shark, enabling her to reclaim her SASSA card and ID. With the remaining funds, she was able to buy proper food for her children. Annah was overjoyed to have her SASSA card and ID back, as it meant she now had an income of R1650 each month. This financial stability allowed her to purchase clothes and food for her children, which made a significant difference in their lives.

Annah's most recent loan, for R2500, was for building materials to improve their home. She purchased one pallet of bricks and two bags of cement, with plans to add more materials and build an additional room before the end of the year. She also took R200 to buy sweets and Simba chips to sell in her community. This venture has already earned her R75 in profit, and she plans to expand her offerings by adding atchar (spicey mango mix) to her business.

“I am very happy with the progress and changes I've made in my life since joining the SHG. I have my SASSA card back, we are eating proper food, and I've bought building materials. I feel that the community respects me as a member because of the changes they see in my life,” Annah said.

Annah and her brick collection!

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Apr 7, 2025
Last weekends FUN!

By Louise | Managing Director

Apr 2, 2025
KTD196 Growing and Developing, because of you!

By Louise | Managing Director

Hlulani

Avuxeni, Minjani? Umfekile Minjane!

I can’t believe we have hit the second quarter. It seems like we have done half a years work already and yet it is now the second quarter and time just seems to speed by.

This week has been very exciting. We have employed more people however the best part is that they are fully budgeted for! We have 3 new people given to us by a company in the building we rent as part of their business of enabling newly qualified degree and diploma level graduates a chance to gain work experience. They are all involved in social media, so hopefully they will improve our story telling, case studies but also assist us with data entry and our new database system comes online. (This system has been implemented to track impact of the work we do but also comes at a minimal cost due to the company’s donation in kind covering most of the costs).

We also sadly had to replaced one community facilitator in the SHG program who didn’t work out despite our best efforts, so that is a new person. Plus 2 interns, one of whom has grown up under the program and has now become an intern in the Children’s Program. I will share more about Boitike (his name means Blessing) in the future.

We now have 3staff who grew up in KTD196 working in the program. It is so exciting! Eventually I want to replace most staff and board members with past beneficiaries so that the passion remains as the organization grows and develops long term. We now have a staff compliment of 21!! Just amazing given when we started it was just Elizabeth and I. This year we have added 9staff to assists us. We have been struggling with the workload and wanting to channel as much funding as possible to the children, now with support from our institutional donors and the company who is supporting the 3 new interns, we are having space and time to breathe and plan more effectively.

We are very wise and very frugal regarding our expenditure, please if you have any questions regarding our funding, income, expenditure you are very welcome to email me and will respond. director@keepthedream19.com

Below is a story from one of our past beneficiaries, I hope you enjoy Hlulani’s story.

Thank you for all you do for the children of KTD196

Blessings

Louise

My name is Hlulani, I grew up in a dysfunctional environment where life was shaped by the behaviour of the community, and some may call it peer-pressure. I was born in 1994/11/06 in a family whereby my father was the only bread winner, this had an impact on my growth. As I grew up I had to go to school with people who had enough at their homes. I watched them tease me because I never even had pocket money. I went to school not enjoying because I was forced. When I reached grade 5 I went to initiation school and this was a turning point for me. My life became a mess, I became something I don’t even believe I was now. When I went to grade 6, both my parent had to go and work at Johannesburg to supplement the needs of the family. They left me at home with my neighbour to look after me, I then dropped out of school.

I unleashed my so called “pseudo manhood”, I thought I had it all under control and knew what I was doing. Pity I had no idea I was only fantasising which fantasies would never have had flourished, I became naughty. I did not listen to people who tried advising or putting some sense into me because I thought I was a man. I repeated grade 6 where I was always fighting and when interrogated about the fights I had no sugar-way of talking to adults I was always rude.

When I went to grade 7 I met people who were almost thinking the same way I did, we influenced each other, wherein a class a teacher could only reach the two-front row. We enjoyed that because that’s what we wanted, we did not want to be in the spotlight with teachers. By this time I was also involved with an organisation called Sizanani which worked together with Keep the Dream 196. Keep the Dream196 focused on changing the lives of teenager to the right path using the scout laws, motto, and promise which also enshrine in them words from the bible. They enforced behaviour change but a lot of us did not take them serious because we thought we were man’s enough to be playing games.

June 2009, Sizanani selected a few learners to attend a scout camp at westfalia, I was one of them with my other two friends. When we arrived at the camp we continually thought it was just for fun and did not take it serious. We continued to play at the camp and they noticed us, they separated us and created competitions. Those competitions ensured that we brought our A-game, we all wanted to win and it came to my attention that it was not about competitions but to ensure that we conform to the group, we respect other members, learn to share and to work with others.

My eyes opened, I saw a future in the scouts, I learnt to live by the laws, motto and scout promise. It impacted my life in a positive way, because they enforced that scouts are not failures, instead they smile and whistle under all difficulties and persist to achieve. I took advantage of Keep the Dream196’s vision and mission and it worked for me, I started advancing on my English, communication, writing and academics. From that point I never failed a grade with guidance provided to me by Keep the dream 196.

Keep the Dream196 monitored my progress, they realised that education provided at schools was never enough for one’s life, it needs supplements from other skills thus, they offered me some skills like teaching or training. Keep the Dream196 restored my life, they continually empowered me in a way that I said to myself that failure will never be an option.

Through the leadership position I occupied my focus shifted from fake ideologies I had, to school and scouts only. It shaped what I wanted to be, I decided I wanted to be a teacher or a social worker which had to do with changing teenagers minds. 2016 January after receiving my matric results I attempted to enrol at Univen, Turf and TUT but I could not, Keep the Dream196 again came to my rescue offering me a job which was not necessary a job but skills and experience that enable me to mobilise resources to use when I do enrol at varsity.

I completed my social work degree at Wits University in 2021 because of Keep the Dream196. I am well motivated and I still live by the scout laws, promise and motto, distance may take away my duties as a scout but I will always be part of Keep the Dream196’s program.

Hlulani

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