"SaveAct has really helped me. SaveAct trained me in saving even though I was a widow. I was unable to organise my life properly but now I am able to organise everything myself. I now have a plan on how to do things." | "SaveAct has helped me very much as I have learnt how to save my money. Today I am able to save in combination with other women. SaveAct has also taught me how to start my own business and manage it on my own. SaveAct has changed my life very much." | "SaveAct helped me as it gave me training. When SaveAct arrived it unlocked my mind. Now I farm chicken, I can save my money and budget the money I have saved properly. I have also been able to start a small business. I am now a woman and not a widow. When SaveAct arrived I was a widow with nobody to turn to, but now I am laughing." | "SaveAct has helped me with saving. I can now teach children and I can sew. I am currently sewing school uniforms for the local schools. I can see now that SaveAct has really trained me. With the money that I have saved I can now cater to all my needs. I am now hoping to start another business with the money that I have saved with SaveAct." | "SaveAct has helped me to start a business of selling. I was able to open my business at a proper location. Even when training took place I realized that when I start my business I had looked at five points which were raised at the training. These points are like, examining the target market and also looking at how your business will progress. SaveAct has helped me see the progress of my business and also enabled me to monitor the progress. Our catering company is called Khulaguza. Our catering company is really working and is prosperous."

believes that mobilisation of poor and vulnerable groups (especially women and people affected by HIV/AIDS) around savings, has the potential for members to develop more sustainable livelihoods and for groups to catalyse collective action towards social and economic empowerment.

SaveAct envisages a situation where groups connect with each other, identify common issues and formulate joint action plans. As they build their collective power so will they be able to assert their rights and secure more accountable and responsive governance.

Photograph 1: Phili (right) attending the seminar held in Durban in March 2009, where SaveAct’s model was introduced to several stakeholders. Here she is seen with Mary Baich, President of Vesper Society and Nolufefe Nonjeke-Dlanjwa of SaveAct. Philisiwe Matilda Mkhize, a founding Trustee of SaveAct, passed away on 15th May at the young age of 34 years. Mature beyond her years, Phili played a vital role in SaveAct’s establishment and development. Despite numerous commitments in government she was always ready to contribute towards SaveAct, in matters of human resource policy and staff selection, in the formulation of the mission and vision, in the design of our strategies, and in the development of our monitoring and evaluation framework. Her untimely death is a great loss to SaveAct and to the region as a whole. Phili was a rare individual. She led with passion, insightfulness and grace. Photograph 2:Phili (left) with Gretta Maphumulo, at a staff training week in Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation conducted by Puneetha Palakurthi of the University of Southern New Hampshire, May 2006.

“From the Cape right up to Cairo, from Abouja to Addis Ababa, you have institutions that exist and are strong, they are vibrant and they have survived colonialism and slavery and changes of government and coup d’etats and bad leaders. They are called stokvels in South Africa or they are burial associations – associations where poor people are putting resources together to deal with everyday bread-and-butter issues.

Why is it that South Africa cannot find a way of assisting that? Why is it that these unofficial clubs have to operate below the radar screen and aren’t getting direct help? And yet, these associations are where people are showing their creativity and ingenuity and experience. These things have evolved over centuries and are probably the most resilient thing the continent has got.”

(Gerry Salole, former Director of the Southern African Office of the Ford Foundation, 2005)

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