Abstract
M.A.
It is estimated that the large percentage of rural South African households are living in poverty. The majority of rural households rely mainly on state social grants for income In order to wage a war on poverty and unemployment, the Department of Social Development developed policies and programmes targeted at poverty prevention, alleviation and reduction and the development of people’s capacity to take charge of their own circumstances in a meaningful way.
Thusano self-help project was initiated to fight poverty, unemployment and malnutrition. An exploratory study was conducted; the main objective was to assess the impact that the project had on its members. The researcher used a one-group post-test only design. Non- Probability, Convenience Sampling was used to assemble respondents of the study. Face to face interviews or personal interviews were conducted with 19 respondents i.e. 10 participants in the project and 9 drop outs. Interviews were chosen due to the fact that majority of respondents were illiterate.
Data collected revealed that the majority of respondents were women and single parents. The project exposed project members to various training programmes, but the level of literacy had a negative impact to some project members. Those who are illiterate could not be trained on some skills like bookkeeping as it requires the ability to read and write. More than half of the respondents indicated that the project enabled them to meet most basic needs like food, school requirements and family health status improved.
For those who were still participating in the project, they indicated that even though income in monetary terms was minimal, they remained due to the fact that they solely depend on the project to provide for their families with a variety of fresh and dried crops and vegetables. But they indicated that if they can get more remunerative employment they might leave. Drop-outs indicated that they left due to different reasons i.e. their children found employment, poor health, and receiving old age pension. From the data collected it was concluded that the project had assisted all participants to meet most basic needs, but there I was a need to improve their rewards (income) so that they can meet other needs like housing, clothing and other basic costs.
Prof. W.A. Mitchell