Unrest Uncover 2021

We couldn't sweep the looting under the carpet - We need to comprehend!

Visiting every home to truly understand!
South Africa awoke to the most shocking news on Monday morning, 12 July 2021. Izulu Orphan Projects (IOP) and our partner organisation, I Learn to Live (ILTL), along with the rest of the country, was taken by complete surprise when the looting began in KZN. It was devastating to hear our IOP and ILTL, staff telling us how vehicles were pulling into their communities full of plunder. The thoughts of how we would navigate this situation wisely started to fill me with complete anguish. How do we move forwards with communities that have caused so much chaos? We made the decision to find out how and why, and what could we do to help ensure that this never happens again, this was the birth of our ‘My Life | My Responsibility’ program. Our staff visit every household and spend 2 hours unpacking the different areas of the families lives that contribute to the quality of life.

Our dedicated team of Greenlight Facilitators visiting our 250 households. The Greenlight Survey helps families to reflect, prioritize and plan how to resolve any poverty-related challenges that affects them. For more information on this tool visit: www.greenlightmovement.org.za

The data coming from our Greenlight surveys reminds us of why we are here!

For every indicator there are three status conditions:

Our families have an average of between 8 to 18 family members per household.

A sample of our data:

There are 50 indicators exposing every area of their lives.

Only 7% of our families survive on more then R5 000 per month. 52% have between R2 000 – R5 000. 41% of our famiies live on a total family income of less then R2 000 per month!!
52% of our families rely on seasonal work and 41% have absolutely no form of income besides government grants.
62% of our families have no access to any kind of credit besides the thieving loan sharks which prey on the financially vulnerable. Many of our grandmothers take these loans at 50% interest. This typically happens when their pension money runs out half way through the month when trying to feed their families. They are stuck in this vicious cycle of handing over their whole pension to try pay their loans back every month.
69% of our families have never been able to save a single cent. With no access to credit either, they have no means to try start any kind of business or way to generate income.

Our take away from this data:

Our biggest focus with the adult community in 2022 will be our R2 Saving Schemes. We have seen incredible success with this project since we started in 2018. We have 45 groups of 20 women meeting once a week to save R2 each. We have some groups that have now saved over R20 000!!! We have seen women in these groups starting many different kinds of businesses together to support their families. Unfortunately we had to cap the number of these groups due to our staff capacity.

We have to help these families become independent. They can all afford R2! We will be doing all we can to grow the number of these savings groups. It truly brings them the confidence and ability to do it for themselves. These are their groups, their money, their ideas. This is the only way to bring sustainability and dignity.

My Life | My Responsibility Plan:

The highest costs is when the groups start, we need to train for 6 weeks and then facilitate the process every week for the first 4 months. The following 4 months we visit them fortnightly. For the last quarter of the year we only visit the group monthly to ensure they can carry on independently. Every family, every community and every area needs to have access to their own funds to improve their own lives.

We need to increase our staff for this program from 2 to 5 people. Staff typically earn R155 per day. The more staff we have the more groups we can facilitate. The more groups we have the more fuel we need to reach more areas. This is where you can help us make the difference! We cannot do this without you!

We believe we need to strengthen our communities from the inside so that when something like looting occurs, they are resilient and able to stand.

Please know how grateful we are for all your help. We are truly the hope of the world!

I would like to mention how awesome the teams of IOP and ILTL are. They are the ones who show their own communities how life can flow with fruitfulness, opportunities and destiny.

Thank-you to you all.

Kate, Mpume and the amazing teams of IOP and ILTL.

Ways To Donate

Banking Details for Offline Donation
Bank: First National Bank
Account Name: Izulu Orphan Projects
Cheque Account (Non-Profit)
Account No: 62094657908
Branch: Empangeni, 8 Smith Street
Branch Code: 220130
BIC/Swift address: FIRNZAJJXXX

PAYPAL Donation Link
You can now donate via PayPal
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ZAPPER Donation Link
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