SaveAct was founded in 2005 as an NGO concerned with empowering poor and vulnerable groups in South Africa.
Registered as a NPO : 054-243

To respond to poverty in the region by promoting savings and credit groups as effective instruments for accessing financial services, building sustainable livelihoods and empowering women and other vulnerable groups.

To empower poor and vulnerable groups through social and economic mobilisation to become drivers of positive change.

SaveAct was established to respond to two significant problems:

• The prevalence of poverty, lack of secure rights and social exclusion, particularly of women, overlaid with widespread chronic disease (e.g. HIV/AIDS)
• The lack of effective strategies by government in particular to respond to this national crisis and create opportunities for people living under such conditions to take action to meaningfully address these problems.

Many thousands of families in South Africa find themselves without secure livelihoods, whilst also suffering from high levels of mortality and/ or debilitating burdens as a result of chronic illness, domestic violence and crime. In most instances these families to do not have access to employment and are struggling to survive. Those fortunate to have secured social grants are better able to cope. However, they too remain trapped in dependency. Few strategies have been developed to enable people to break from exclusion and dependency and act to overcome their dire circumstances.

SaveAct has an interest in developing effective strategies that enable poor and vulnerable groups to secure more sustainable livelihoods by using savings as a stable foundation for building a process of people-driven development. In this model there are no handouts. Rather, there are a set of active choices for people to make, which act as self-selection filters that make it possible for those willing to break from dependency and take active steps towards climbing out of poverty - in other words, a demand-driven process. SaveAct's model is based on savings as a catalyst for mobilising poor and vulnerable groups into participatory processes, involving people-driven asset building, learning and action.

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