Imijeloyophuhliso: Facilitating Economic Empowerment & Disability Inclusion through Social Cohesion
Involved alumni:
The challenge that the project addresses
Low income families, people with disabilities and rural communities are the most disadvantaged when it comes to accessing resources. This results in impounded marginalisation on these groups. Building on the MDG (2015) achievements, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs) aim to reduce the percentage of people living in extreme poverty to zero by 2030 access to financial services forms a fundamental basis on which many of the other essential interventions depend thus reducing poverty and its effects in multiple ways. (United Nations, 2015).
What is your project doing to respond to this challenge?
- Organise savings groups; and support and empower their efforts to become sustainable.
- Support and empower community members to expand sources of income using innate abilities.
- Communicate relevant policies in plain language so that communities may actively engage in the process and discussions around financial inclusion, and ‘ubuntu’ in local economic security/development.
- Facilitate individual meetings and compile financial diaries during the meeting sessions.
- Facilitate focus group sessions to discuss and share knowledge on how to address community challenges.
- Promote disability inclusion in ECD and savings groups.
- Promote family involvement in ECD using Indigenous Knowledge Systems (indigenous games and storytelling, using local resources and innate abilities for stimulation of children with disabilities).
- Conduct research on advancing financial inclusion using LED, savings group approaches and values of Ubuntu.
- Publish articles and present conference papers as means of knowledge dissemination.
Describe the project's impact
- Relevant, self-sustained, inclusive and locally driven community wealth model; developed and informed by local peoples’ views.
- Accessible micro-credit in the form of affordable interest small loans.
- Children introduced to saving program from ECD.
- Sustainable local economic growth and social cohesion ‘ubuntu’ in local economic security.
- Informed and relevant policy on local economic development and financial mobility in particular.
- Community financial resource centres established.
- Savings group members support each other in generating income.
- Communities informed about disability.
- Children with disabilities included in local schools.
- Savings groups and development initiatives inclusive of people with disabilities;
- Families involved in ECD.
- Evidence based research on issues of financial inclusion using LED, savings group approaches and values of Ubuntu.