By Louise and the KTD196 Dream Team | Director
I am Suzen from Nsolani Village, I am 39 years old and I am a member of Vun’we SHG which was formed this year (2022). I have 2 children a girl who is 20 years old and a boy who is 5 years old. I am not married, and I dropped out of school in grade 10. I am currently staying at an RDP house with my son. My daughter is currently studying at the University of Limpopo through NSFAS. My boy who I am staying with was born with a disability, physical disability I don’t know the name of the disability (cerebral palsy). Since he was born, we have been going to hospital for physiotherapy and treatment for his condition. Now he is 5 years old and he can’t walk properly, he can’t speak or feed himself. When I gave birth to him, he looked like a normal child and when the doctors told me that he had a disability I couldn’t understand what they were talking about because for me he could see, hear, had 10 fingers and 10 toes. As he grew up that’s when I started seeing the physical disability.
Other people in the community (older people) fear him, whenever we board a taxi to his check up and physio appointments you can see the strange look I always get, some even look at us with disgust because he is always drooling. I would always ask myself that what did I do to deserve such a punishment from God, my first born is okay and independent and now my second child is physical disabled. Being a single parent, I was struggling a lot with having balance in my life, my son needs my care 24/7 so I couldn’t go out there to look for work. I must buy him nappies and he is growing so they are becoming more expensive. When my child matriculated, I didn’t know what to do because I had no money to give her so she could go to the university to register for the course she wanted. I went to a loan shark and took a loan for R3000-00. I gave him my children’s SASSA cards, my ID copy and the children’s birth certificates. Every month I would go to him and he would give me R500, saying the rest is to pay off the loan.
When I joined Vun’we SHG my life changed drastically, during one of the meetings when I was a moderator I spoke to the women about my problem and how I wanted to pay off my debt from the loan shark. The group decided to loan me the money and I paid off the loan shark. I have also managed to pay off the loan I took from the group. Now I can officially say that I have financial freedom. I have all the SASSA cards back with me, I have started a small business, I am currently selling ice cream, cool time guava juice and now I want to add pop corns and sweets. I love this group with all my heart, the women in the group are my sisters, when I come to the meeting I come with my son and if I am the moderator, they will hold my son for me and I can see that they have accepted him and they play with him. My child at the university I am able to send her R300 once in a while because of how much the group has helped me. I love this group with all my heart.
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