Avo Solutions
Empowered with financial and business skills after attending the “Boost Your Income” training offered by Avo Vision, Mapaseka Mkwana from Cosmo City, North of Johannesburg, has successfully launched a confectionery business that now generates profits equivalent to her wages as an Early Childhood Development teacher in her community.
Avo Vision is a social Impact organisation that supports South Africans to live better lives through Community training, Livelihood creation and Enterprise and Supplier Development. As part of protecting sustainable income for the SEF participants, Avo Vision offered the ‘Boosting your Income’ training programme. SEF is the Social Employment Fund, one of the Presidential Employment Stimulus programmes that seeks to reduce unemployment while addressing key social, environmental and economic challenges in the country.
Mkwana says she heard about this module she grabbed the opportunity to attend this module with both hands because she was trying to find ways to gain financial knowledge before, she started her business. “I was unemployed for nine months and (I) was getting frustrated and slipping into depression. When I heard about ‘Boost Your Income’ training I decided to attend because I was determined to find ways to boost my current income with plans to further my studies,” she explained.
Mkwana is currently working under the Social Employment Fund (SEF) and used her monthly stipend to kick-start her entrepreneurship journey. SEF is one of the Presidential Stimulus Programmes, managed by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), and aims to address the challenge of unemployment through employment creation. Avo Vision has placed X people in green businesses and ECD centres across 5 provinces.
Mkwana’s confectionery business sells cupcakes andscones at the nearby primary school, her workplace and to private clients during special occasions such as parties, weddings and family gatherings. After passing matric in 2012, Mkwana studied Computer Literacy before going to TVET College and studying Welding. Soon after graduating, Mkwana says she started experiencing eye problems and had to quit her welder job.
Mkwana is currently furthering her studies towards Early Childhood Learning (Level 4 qualification), with the aim to one day start her own ECD centre. “I always knew that I love working with children, but being an ECD teacher under SEF has solidified that passion and it’s something that I would like to do for the rest of my life,” she said.
Although Mkwana’s business has been striving since it was launched, she says it comes with a lot of sacrifices and to this day she is still trying to get used to it.
"Running your own business takes a lot of sacrifices, especially if you’re a parent. Every morning from 06:30 to 08:30, I am at the school selling my baked goods. After that, I go straight to work. After work, I help my child with school homework, do household chores and then bake for the following day before going to bed. It takes passion and dedication to make the business successful," the mother of one added.
“My advice to a young person is to start with whatever amount that they have, and I encourage them to attend short courses such as Boost Your Income to empower themselves with skills such as financial literacy and how to run small businesses successfully,” Mkwana advised for anyone who wants to start a business.
‘Boost Your Income’ is one of the training modules offered by Avo Vision in person and through online platforms such as WhatsApp, Zoom and Microsoft Teams to reach individuals from every corner of the country. The participants are equipped with in-depth financial skills, offering them the opportunity to explore new business prospects and secure their financial future.
It has been exactly 68 years since women stood together and marched to Pretoria in 1956 to protest against the extension of the Pass Laws to women. Activists rebelled against a patriarchal system designed to control women and reduce them to submissive beings at the mercy of men. Despite nearly three decades of democracy, only 21.9% of all businesses are owned by women. Contributing factors include poor access to capital, insufficient support in entrepreneurial spaces, and a lack of understanding from the government, private sector, and financial institutions about the important role that female business owners can play in our country’s economy.
Crystal Tau is one of 45 of AvoVision’s training partners. As such, she and her training business have been instrumental in equipping communities with the skills they need to improve their lives. When COVID-19 affected most small businesses, some had to shut down due to lockdown restrictions. At the time Crystal had a business as a host and tour guide for international gospel singers and pastors. She had to close this business down due to the pandemic’s gathering and travel restrictions. She was worried and did not know how she was going to survive financially.
Then she heard about AvoVision's Kickstarz programme for young entrepreneurs which was being implemented in partnership with Momentum Metropolitan. This was the first entrepreneurship and financial skills programme to be implemented digitally. Due to the impact of the pandemic, AvoVision was inspired to design accessible online training solutions to reach every corner of the country, despite the restrictions.
Crystal’s parents were teachers in the rural area of Badplaas, Mpumalanga. Growing up with teachers ignited in her a passion for facilitation. After having to drop out of university and getting married, she was introduced to Joyous Celebration auditions and started her own business. She says: "My company, Gen 7, started from a Bible verse. What I am now, will help seven generations ahead. It is important to me that everyone who has worked with me must be able to go and change seven lives, who in turn will help seven others. AvoVision’s development programmes helped me to help my communities. My work with Avo aligns with my motto of community empowerment.”
Crystal highlighted that one of her favourite programmes to teach is "Boosting Your Income”. This AvoVision workshop encourages people to tap into their talents and channel their entrepreneurial skills. She also swears by the Budgeting Basics module, because it helped her so much. She used the ‘Snowball’ method to pay off all her debts. She explains: "The sessions are not just useful for my participants; I also apply everything I learn in the Avo programmes in my personal life. As a mother of five, because I have learnt good financial management practices, I have been able to pay for my two children's flight attendant courses.”
Crystal co-opted two young girls into her training business to work as her assistants. This has exposed them not only to key financial skills and values, but also to seeing the workings of an entrepreneurial journey in practice. Once they got their own businesses up and running, they struck out on their own. Crystal then hired her own two matriculated daughters, something she had always done in different businesses. "I know exactly how it feels to be a woman and not have bread for my children. When you equip a woman, she'll take what you give her to learn and to move faster. Helping a woman means helping the whole community. It is so important for women to have their own source of income. If opportunities are limited, women must be taught how to use skills that can put bread on the table. My advice to young women out there is: Don't sit and wait. No one is coming to save you. You must make the change. We women need to look after ourselves and help each other to come up with solutions. That is why I only hire women," she emphasised.
One of Crystal’s financial skills participants told her a story she that she will never forget. The woman had attended a ‘Money Fo' Sho!’ workshop. Thinking about what she had learnt, she decided to save all her SASSA grant money. She used that money to eventually buy a piece of land to build a house on for her children. By now she has built two rooms and has started extending.
Avocado Vision plays a vital role in contributing towards the 2030 gender equality sustainability goals. Over the years, more than 60 percent of our financial skills participants and beneficiaries have been women. To contribute to this impact that supports women who are doing it for themselves, contact engage@avovision.co.za.
